For this year’s London Games, the gold
medals are roughly 93% silver, 6% copper and 1% gold.
The silver medals are 92% silver and 8% copper. The bronze medals
are 97% copper, 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin.
Gold medals made from solid gold were introduced at the 1904 St.
Louis Games, and four years later in London, the medals began to be
awarded to the top three placing athletes in the gold-silver-bronze
order we’re familiar with today. The 1912 Stockholm Games were the
last time solid gold medals were awarded.
These days, the IOC charter only requires that the first place
medals be silver gilt, containing “silver of at least 925-1000 grade
and gilded with at least 6g of pure gold.” The second place silver
medals must contain silver of a similar grade. Beyond that, the
specific composition of the medals, and their design, is largely
left to the host city’s organizing committee.
When the first modern Olympic games organized by the International
Olympic Committee were held in 1896 in Athens, winners got a silver
medal and an olive branch, and runners-up received a bronze medal
and a laurel branch.
Ancient Greek competitors were given an olive branch from a wild
olive tree that grew at Olympia along with some money upon returning
home.