Olympics 2024: gold, silver, bronze and iron

Almost everyone knows that the origins of the Olympic Games lie in Ancient Greece. Historical records of winners reveal that the very first Olympics took place in 776 BC. What not everyone may be aware of is that instead of today's gold, silver and bronze medals, a winner was presented with a kotinos - a wreath made from olive branches. There were no awards for second and third place back then. It would be another 2672 years before medals were awarded.

The first Olympic medals were awarded in 1896

After the Olympic Games were banned in 394 by Roman Emperor Theodosius as a "pagan cult", the first modern Olympic Games did not take place until 1896 in Athens. Silver and bronze medals were awarded for the first two places in each discipline, while gold medals for the world's best Olympians were not introduced until the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis. Since then, specific medals have been designed for each Olympics, often with other special features in addition to the particular design. For the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, for example, 6.21 million old smartphones and other electronic waste weighing a total of 79,000 tonnes was collected in a nationwide campaign to promote urban mining in order to produce the Olympic medals from the recycled gold and silver.

Some of this year's Olympic medals are made from the Eiffel Tower

The design of the 5084 gold medals produced for the 2024 Olympics in Paris immediately catches the eye with the hexagon in the centre of the front, which was made from 18 grams of iron from the Eiffel Tower. The hexagon is surrounded by a radial, circular setting, creating an attractive contract between the gold lustre and the piece of iron. However, in accordance with IOC regulations, the 529-gram gold medal contains only 6 grams of pure fine gold and consists mainly of silver with a purity of 92.5 per cent. And, of course, the iron from the Eiffel Tower as well, which was not cut out of the Paris landmark, but was collected during earlier repair work.