Medals: Going For Gold!
One of the most exciting and historic events at the Olympic and Paralympic Games is the medal ceremony - when winning athletes from around the world receive their gold, silver or bronze medals. The medal ceremony recognises their effort and dedication to become the best in the world.
Kieren Perkins and Daniel Kowalski win gold and silver in the 1500 metre freestyle at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
What made this even more exciting for Australian competitors at the 2000 Games in Sydney was that these athletes each took home a piece of Australia with them. The gold and the silver for the Sydney Games came from some of Australia's oldest and newest mines. As for the bronze, you may have previously touched some of the metal in the bronze medals. Read on to find out why this might be.
Gold
Silver
Copper
How must the Olympic medals be made?
Each Olympic medal must be at least 70mm across and 6mm thick. The gold and silver medals must contain at least 92.5% silver, and at least 6 grams of 24-carat gold must coat each gold medal. Bronze medals contain copper, zinc, tin and a very small amount of silver.
Where did the Gold/Silver/Copper come from for the Beijing Olympics?
The BHP Billiton owned Cannington mine site in North west Queensland, will provide the silver used for the production of the gold and silver medals. BHP Billiton mine sites in Chile will provide the gold to coat the gold medals and the copper for producing the bronze medals. Where did the gold come from for the Sydney Olympic medals?The 10.5kg of gold required to coat all the gold medals came from two mines in the Orange, Cabonne and Blayney area in the central west of NSW. Here on the historic Ophir gold fields, the first payable gold was found in 1851 and caused Australia's great gold rush. The nearby Cadia Mine is a new mining operation using the latest technology to extract gold from deposits which were originally discovered almost 150 years ago. |
 Native Gold |
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Newcrest Mining Ltd, the operator of the Cadia Mine, donated 2 kg of gold and the operator of the historic Ophir mine also donated some. The rest of the gold was donated by the local community which raised the funds to purchase the gold required from the Cadia Mine and other gold mines in the area. It is no wonder that this amazing community effort will contribute to Australia being known as the 'Land with the heart of gold'. Your school might have a copy of Minerals Downunder produced by the Minerals Council of Australia. You can calculate today's value of 10.5kg of gold by visiting the website section of Minerals Downunder For more information on gold visit: www.minerals.org.au |
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Where did the silver come from?The 1,050 kilograms of silver needed was donated by BHP Billiton and was mined at the Cannington Mine in Queensland, with a further 22.5kg ingot of local silver donated by the people of Broken Hill. The joint contribution of silver from one of Australia's oldest silver mines at Broken Hill in north western NSW and one of its newest - BHP's Cannington Mine in north west Queensland, is again symbolic of the past and present contribution that the mining of silver has and is making to Australia's development. |
 Native Silver |
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For more information on silver visit: Minerals Downunder and www.minerals.org.au |
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Where did the bronze come from?The bronze medals were made from 1c and 2c coins that were produced in Australia when the change was made to decimal currency in 1966. As you know, these coins are no longer in circulation and tonnes of them have been handed back to the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra. Each bronze medal contained 1% silver and the remaining 99% is what is called coinage bronze, from the 1c and 2c coins. |
 Native Copper |
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For more information on copper visit: Minerals Downunder and www.minerals.org.au |
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Design Features of the 2008 Medals
The medals are 70mm in diameter and 6mm in thickness.
Since 1928, the front side of every medal has featured a picture of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. A new design was created for the 2004 Games, featuring the Greek Panathenaic Stadium (where the modern Olympics were revived in 1896) and a new image of Nike. Based on a statue carved in 421 BC which was kept in the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, the new image shows Nike flying into the stadium as if to crown the winners with a wreath.
The reverse side of every medal is unique to each Olympic Games and is designed by the host city. The medal for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has been inlaid with a jade disk, inspired by an ancient Chinese piece called "Bi". Jade has an important place in Chinese culture as it represents beauty and excellence in all things. The medal hook is inspired by the dragon which is a symbol of strength and power.
VISIT:
http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/
For information on the medals, the torch, the mascots and past games.
Design Your Own Medal
Knowing what you do now about the design requirements for Olympic medals and using your own creativity, sketch your design for the reverse side of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games medals.
Reverse Side
Medal Presentation
All of these medals will be presented to the winning sporting achievers in hundreds of medal ceremonies during the Olympic Games.
The International Organising Committee (IOC) Charter makes the rules for awarding medals. The Charter stipulates that an IOC member presents the medals and that a member of the International Federation of that sport presents a bunch of flowers. At the Sydney Games these were Australian native flowers.
IDEA: What sort of flowers do you think might be used in Beijing?
Allsport
DID YOU KNOW?
The copper for the 2004 Athens Olympics medals came from Cyprus. It was transported to Greece in June 2004 in a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek merchant ship 'Kyrenia" which sank off the coast over 2000 years ago.