Olympic Gold Medals: 1908 Vs 2024
A photo making rounds on social media has sparked conversations about the changing composition of Olympic gold medals over the years. The image contrasts a gold medal from the 1908 Olympics, which was made of 100% pure gold, with a 2024 Olympic gold medal, reportedly containing just 1% gold.
The 1908 medal, a relic of the early modern Olympics, represents a time when the prestige of the games was mirrored in the material value of the medals themselves. In contrast, the 2024 Olympic gold medal, although still highly symbolic, reflects the evolution of the games and the shifting priorities in material usage due to economic and environmental considerations.
This comparison has fueled discussions online, with many expressing nostalgia for the older, purer medals, while others emphasize the significance of the achievements these medals represent, regardless of their material composition. The photo serves as a stark reminder of how the Olympics—and the world—have changed over more than a century.
When it comes to what materials the medals are made out of, that's been a bit fluid as well. The original medals awarded at the Athens Games of 1896 were, as mentioned, silver and copper. Over the intervening years, gold, silver and bronze became the standard, and, in fact, between 1928 and 1968, medals were close to identical apart from the host city and year of the games. During the 1972 Munich Games -- overshadowed by the murder of 11 Israeli athletes -- the identical medal tradition was broken with a new design on one side. Since then, they've been a varied bunch: In the 2008 Beijing Games, for instance, the medals included jade, a unique, culturally significant departure from the standard.
The medals of the Winter Games have traditionally been made of gilt silver (silver coated with gold) for the top prize, followed by silver and bronze for second and third place. Since the Albertville Games of 1992, however, Olympic organizers have been mixing things up a little. Winners that year received medals adorned with crystal. In Lillehammer, four years later, all three medals included portions of sparagmite -- a type of granite. Nagano featured medals with lacquer. In 2002, Salt Lake City went back to the standard gilt-silver recipe for their top champs. Since then, most winter games have followed suit
In terms of the specific metals that wind up in the cocktail, current gold medals must consist of at least 92.5 percent silver and 6 grams of gold coating, per International Olympic Committee (IOC) regulations. The rest is typically copper. Silver medals these days often also have a bit of copper in them, and bronze medals also contain copper, sometimes alloyed with zinc
As far as actual cost goes, the gold Olympic medals at the 2010 Vancouver Games -- the heaviest on record so far -- cost about $500 a pop at the time. That was vastly higher than the 2002 Salt Lake City set, where the gold medals cost about $150 each, again based on the prices at the time. Most of that difference, however, can be chalked up to the rising prices of precious metals,not vast variations in composition and size. Gold medals at the London 2012 games will cost about $700, after tipping the scales at 400 grams
Host cities also have to consider the order size into their expenditures -- with Summer Games often having more competitors and medalists. At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, only about 1,000 medals were commissioned, opposed to Beijing's approximately 6,000 medals needed two years earlier. But since Beijing's medals had been significantly lighter (about 150 grams versus 500 grams), the city's entire order came to $1,091,000 -- still less than Vancouver's bill of $1,147,000. Quite the difference when you factor in the 5,000 medal discrepancy.
More photos below.
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