Since its glorious inception in 1896, the Olympic Games have continued to feature a set of treasured Olympic medals in the bronze, silver, and gold categories for the undefeated winners. While the Olympic medals are hailed as the epitome of excellence by billions of athletes and sports fans around the world, a majority of them still have no idea about the process and details that go behind manufacturing these highly treasured Olympic medals that serve as the ultimate benchmark of dedication and supremacy in the sports arena on a global scale.

In this article, we will take a look at the detailed manufacturing process of the Olympic medals.

Designing of the Olympic Medals

While members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) play a crucial role in overviewing the final design of the Olympic medals, the responsibility of designing and manufacturing the Olympic medals is generally left on the shoulders of the host city. The host city generally collaborates with prominent artists and designers to come up with their own unique segment of Olympic medals. As per the guidelines of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the designers must include the following details while curating designs for the Olympic medals :

• Year of the Olympics
• The Olympic Motto

The Olympic medals for the 2024 Paris Olympics have been designed in collaboration with one of the most prominent jewelry designers in Paris, Chaumet.

Manufacturability Assessment of the Olympic Medals

Once the design for the Olympic medals gets approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the designer moves to the next stage which involves specialized manufacturing engineers who are responsible for crafting the Olympic medals with precision, durability, and reduced production cost that reduces the toll of the host city.

The Olympic medals for the 2024 Paris Olympics carry original iron sourced from the Eiffel Tower.

Prototyping the Olympic Medals

After the manufacturing engineers have decided on their design for manufacturability guidance (DFM) and the material that would be used in crafting the Olympic medals, the next stage involves the craftsmen prototyping the Olympic medals with either clay or a sand mold.

Once the casting process is completed, the Olympic Medals are punched with a CNC machine and are later polished or electroplated.

Final Manufacturing of the Olympic Medals

Once the Olympic medals have been cast to perfection and all the quality checks have been passed by the manufacturer’s quality control team, the main stage of manufacturing begins, which involves stamping and CNC machining.

The Olympic medals are manufactured strictly according to the guidelines of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and meet all the quality and aesthetic standards as stated by the IOC.

In the final stage, the Olympic medals are polished and cleaned before entering the next and final round of inspection before shipping.

Final Inspection & Shipping of the Olympic Medals

If you think it’s all that is involved in the manufacturing of Olympic medals, you might need to give it another thought as we are still not done.

After the final rounds of manufacturing, stamping, punching, and polishing, the Olympic Medals still have to go for a rigorous final inspection round to ensure that the medals crafted perfectly meet the guidelines and standards as stated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Once the final inspection is completed and the checks regarding the weight, texture, polishing, color & inscriptions are passed, the Olympic medals are then shipped to the Olympic committee.

The Paris Olympics 2024 are underway and United States are leading the medal tally.

Here is a complete list of winners on Day 11 of Paris Olympics 2024.

Paris Olympics 2024: Day 11

Tuesday, Aug 06

BOXING

WOMEN’S 60KG

Gold: Kellie Harrington, Ireland

Silver: Yang Wenlu, China

Bronze: Beatriz Iasmin Soares Ferreira, Brazil, and Wu Shih-yi, Taiwan

CYCLING TRACK

MEN’S TEAM SPRINT

Gold: Netherlands

Silver: Britain

Bronze: Australia

DIVING

WOMEN’S 10M PLATFORM

Gold: Quan Hongchan, China

Silver: Chen Yuxi, China

Bronze: Kim Mi Rae, North Korea

EQUESTRIAN

INDIVIDUAL JUMPING

Gold: Christian Kukuk, Germany

Silver: Steve Guerdat, Switzerland

Bronze: Maikel van der Vleuten, Netherlands

SKATEBOARDING

WOMEN’S PARK

Gold: Arisa Trew, Australia

Silver: Cocona Hiraki, Japan

Bronze: Sky Brown, Britain

TRACK AND FIELD

WOMEN’S 200M

Gold: Gabrielle Thomas, United States

Silver: Julien Alfred, Saint Lucia

Bronze: Brittany Brown, United States

WOMEN’S 3,000M STEEPLECHASE

Gold: Winfred Yavi, Bahrain

Silver: Peruth Chemutai, Uganda

Bronze: Faith Cherotich, Kenya

WOMEN’S HAMMER THROW

Gold: Camryn Rogers, Canada

Silver: Ennette Nneka Echikunwoke, United States

Bronze: Zhao Jie, China

MEN’S 1,500M

Gold: Cole Hocker, United States

Silver: Josh Kerr, Britain

Bronze: Yared Nuguse, United States

MEN’S LONG JUMP

Gold: Miltiadis Tentoglou, Greece

Silver: Wayne Pinnock, Jamaica

Bronze: Mattia Furlani, Italy

WRESTLING

MEN’S GRECO-ROMAN 130KG

Gold: Mijain Lopez Nunez, Cuba

Silver: Yasmani Acosta Fernandez, Chile

Bronze: Amin Mirzazadeh, Iran

Bronze: Lingzhe Meng, China

MEN’S GRECO-ROMAN 60KG

Gold: Kenichiro Fumita, Japan

Silver: Cao Liguo, China

Bronze: Zholaman Sharshenbekov, Kyrgyzstan

Bronze: Ri Se Ung, North Korea

WOMEN’S FREESTYLE 68KG

Gold: Amit Elor, United States

Silver_Meerim Zhumanazarova, Kyrgyzstan

Bronze: Buse Cavusoglu Tosun, Turkey, and Nonoka Ozaki, Japan

Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024: Rules Athletes Must Follow In Olympic Village

The Olympic gold is the ultimate dream of any athlete in the world. Athletes put their heart and sweat into the sport for the Olympic glory. The most decorated athletes have gold, silver and bronze medals in their cabinet.

Tradition of awarding medals to the top athletes in Olympics goes way back to the first modern Olympic Games, the Athens Olympics in 1896.

When the modern Olympic Games began in 1896 medals started to be given to successful Olympian competitors.

The tradition of bestowing Olympic medals to the top athletes in each event can be traced all the way back to the first modern Olympic Games, which was held in Athens in 1896. However, the tradition of bestowing gold, silver and bronze medals began only at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Making of Olympic Medals

The gold medal in reality is mostly made of silver and is simply plated with pure gold to give it the golden glow. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set out criteria that gold medals must be made of at least 92.5% of silver. They also have about 6 grams of gold in each medal.

Here are the compositions of each medal:

Gold Medal: The gold medals contain only about six grams of pure gold which is plated on the exterior part of the medal. The gold medals consist mostly of silver with a purity of at least 92.5%. It is valued at approximately $750 to $850 dollars (based solely on the value of the materials).

Silver Medal: Silver medals are made out of pure silver.

Bronze Medal: Bronze medals are made of about 95% copper and 5% zinc.

In the past, medals have been made of scrapped materials. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, an estimated 30 per cent of the silver and bronze medals were brought in from recycled materials. The medals for the 2020 were made from recycled e-waste to reduce the carbon footprint.

Also Read: How Host Cities Transform for the Olympics: A Look at Urban Renewal

Medals for Paris Olympics 2024

Each medal at 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games will contain a 18-gram, hexagonal piece of wrought iron that was once a part of the Eiffel Tower and was and preserved during the 20th-century.

The hexagonal shape is a tribute to France which is also known as ““L’hexagone”, owing to the nation’s shape that resembles a hexagon.

The back side of the Olympic medals at Paris Games will feature the traditional Olympic rings and Nike—the Greek goddess of victory.

Also Read: Paris Mayor Swims In Seine Ahead Of Paris Olympics 2024 To Declare Water Safe