Olympics A-Z: The legendary and elusive Gold medal

Thousands of athletes prepare for Olympic glory.

A Gold medal is the ultimate prize in any sport that comes on the ultimate stage. For the majority of sports, that stage is the Olympics. Even more so than the World Championships.

The Olympics have grown to become synonymous with success in sport, such that even being able to participate in one is considered a huge honour. For the truly elite, nothing satisfies them until they stand on the top step of the podium, listening to their country’s national anthem with the Gold medal around their necks. The ultimate prize on the ultimate stage.

History

The Ancient Olympics gave olive wreaths to the winners of events, but the first-ever Modern Olympics in 1896 had just Silver and Bronze medals for the top athletes. The Paris Olympics in 1900 also just awarded Silver and Bronze to the winners. The 1904, 1908 and 1912 Olympics had solid Gold medals as the ultimate prize. The Stockholm Olympics in 1912 saw the last-ever solid Gold medal awarded.

The use of Gold rapidly declined after the First and Second World Wars. These days each Olympic Gold medal is made up of 210g of Silver and is coated with 6g of 24-carat Gold. The Tokyo Olympics will see the medals made from recycled materials. According to Tokyo 2020, 32 kilograms of Gold, 3,500 kilograms of Silver and 2,200 kilograms of Bronze were extracted from nearly 80,000 tons of recycled gadgets. These recycled electronic items include mobile phones, home appliances, computer chips and so on.

Design

Since the 1928 Olympics, the medals have been based on the Trionfo design by Italian Giuseppe Cassolini. The design or a variation of the design persisted till the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It changed after that. This new design featured the Greek victory goddess Nike and the Panathenaic Stadium of Athens, where the Games were first renewed in 1896.

On the medals awarded to Olympic athletes from 1928 to 2000, goddess Nike was seated, holding an ear of corn in one hand and a wreath in the other. In the new design, she flies into the stadium bringing victory to the best athlete. The other side of the medal contains imagery pertaining to the respective host city.

Winners

The first official Gold medal winners were in St. Louis Olympics held in 1904. The two previous editions gave trophies or Silver medals to the winners.

The US swimmer Michael Phelps holds the record for most Olympic Gold medals, having won it 23 times over the course of four Olympics. Phelps also holds the record for most Gold medals in a single edition, having won eight events in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The American also shares the record for most Gold medals in a single individual event with fellow Americans Carl Lewis and Al Oerter. Phelps won four Gold medals in the 200m individual medley from 2004-2016, while Lewis won four medals in the Long Jump from 1984-1996. Al Oerter was the first to achieve this feat in Discus Throw from 1956-1968.

If team events are included, the honour goes to Hungarian Aladar Gerevich, who won six Gold medals from 1932- 1960 in Fencing for the Team sabre event. Team USA’s men’s basketball team have won 15 Gold medals, which includes victories in the last three Olympics.

India’s history with Olympic medals

India have won only 28 medals in total at the Olympics. Of these 28 medals, nine are Gold. All nine Gold medals were won in different Olympics. Eight came in Hockey with the lone individual Gold coming in Shooting at the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing. The first Indian Gold came at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics in Men’s Field Hockey. This trend continued for the next five Olympics as well.

The seventh hockey Gold came at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the number became eight at the 1980 Moscow edition. Abhinav Bindra’s lone individual Gold came in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle Event in the 2008 edition.

Leslie Claudius and Udham Singh have won the most Gold medals for India. These hockey stars won three Gold medals representing the country, the former from 1948 to1956 and the latter in 1952, 1956 and 1964. The duo also has a silver from a second place finish in Rome 1960.

There have been several near misses for India with the Gold, ending up with the silver on many occasions. These include Rajyavardhan Rathore's Silver in Athens 2004. In 2012, both Vijay Kumar (Shooting) and Sushil Kumar(Wrestling) missed the top step by fine margins. India's topmost shuttler PV Sindhu missed out on a golden opportunity in the 2016 Rio Olympics, as she had to settle for a Silver in badminton.

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