Olympic Medal Metal

The 2012 Olympic Games in London commenced with a proud, and unique opening ceremony routine last week. Reviews of the cornucopia of motley dancers and national UK heroes were gracious, sprinkled with honest descriptors like "Britishly amazing."
Now the obligatory promenade is over, international audiences gather at their TVs in the hundreds of millions to watch the world's most competitive athletes give their all. The competitors come to take home the ultimate prize in sports - the Olympic gold medal. Or silver. Or bronze. But preferably gold.
The modern Olympic medal is a 116-year-old tradition, though that tradition has varied widely since the first 1896 Athens Olympic Games. Initially, only two winners were awarded prizes - silver for first, and bronze for second. Gold became the standard for first place in the 1904 summer Olympics in St. Louis, while the other medals moved down to the next two best competitors in the event.
The 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm were the last games where the medal awarded was made of solid gold (this only happened a handful of times). Today, such a bounty would cost $40 million. The International Olympic Committee later designated the measurements of the Olympic medals that we still see today: circular in shape, with a minimum 60 mm diameter and at least 3 mm in thickness. Each medal is required to have a standard composition based on its metals. First place contains 92.5% silver, 1.34% gold, and the remainder in copper; second place contains the same proportion of silver with copper; and third place contains mostly copper combined with tin and zinc.
London 2012's Olympic medals are the biggest and heaviest ever made. Their diameter is 85 mm and their thickness is 8-10 mm. The gold and silver weigh nearly a pound. The price of each gold medal is estimated at approximately $708, according to the World Gold Council. That's in straightforward dollars - their true worth is invaluable. More than 10,000 athletes are vying for just 302 of them in this year's events.
Front and reverse designs enhance the appearance of the medal, but they have not been entirely unique for every year. A competition among artists to design the Summer medal in 1923 went to Italian sculptor Giuseppe Cassioli. His Trionfo
design, which portrays the Greek goddess of victory Nike in front of the Coliseum holding a winner's crown and palm, was used for the Summer games from 1928 in Amsterdam until the 1972 Munich games, and is still an inspiration for subsequent depictions. This year, the medals were designed by British artist David Watkins and feature a mixture of modern and Hellenic elements.
The pride of winning a medal can only really be understood by an Olympic athlete. For those of us sitting on the couch, it's watching the high standard of performance in action that's rewarding. Let the games begin!

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