At the Olympic Games, the winners are awarded medals for the first three prizes. The Olympic medal is a badge of distinction, the most coveted award in an athlete's piggy bank. First place is awarded gold, second - silver and third - bronze. However, in reality, medals are not only made of material that matches their name.
The International Olympic Committee has a number of requirements for its awards. An Olympic medal must be at least sixty mm in diameter and thirty in thickness. Gold and silver awards must be made of an alloy containing 92.5% silver. In addition, the gold medal must be plated with at least six grams of gold. Everything else regarding the production of medals is up to the host party.
The medals made for the London 2012 Games were some of the largest in the history of the Olympics. These awards were eight and a half centimeters in diameter and weighed over four hundred grams. The organizers took into account all the requirements of the IOC in the manufacture of awards. Gold medals, as expected, contained 6 grams of the noble metal and consisted of 92.5% silver. The remaining component of the awards was copper. The set raffled off in London turned out to be the most expensive - the prices of gold and silver almost doubled shortly before its production.
The main substance from which silver medals are made is silver itself. You can also find copper in them. But bronze medals contain an alloy of tin and copper. Most of the awards are made using the Casting technology, which allows the creation of medals of various thicknesses and diameters.
The materials and manufacturing technology of the Olympic medals remain practically unchanged. However, Vancouver in 2010 showed originality and produced awards for athletes from recycled materials. Waste electrical boards became the raw material for the medals. Considering that a total of 86 sets of awards were played, the savings were significant. In addition, this Canada has made its contribution to the preservation of a favorable ecological situation on Earth. And the resulting medals met all the requirements of the IOC.
