Dozens of Olympic athletes will take the podium to receive gold, silver and bronze medals in the Beijing Winter Olympics this month.
Olympic medals are iconic, but what are they actually made out of? How much do they weigh? Here's some insight about what you need to know about Olympic medals, including what makes the Beijing medals unique.
What are Olympic medals made out of?
The Olympic medals aren't fully made with the same metals that they're named after. For example, the gold medals only contain about six grams of gold. Otherwise, at least 92.5 percent is made from silver. The last fully gold medals given out dates back to 1912.
The silver medal, however, is made from 100 percent silver. The bronze medal is made of red brass, which is 95 percent copper and five percent zinc.
How much do Olympic medals weigh?
The medal sizes vary from each Olympic Games. The Winter Games medals tend to be slightly bigger than the Summer Games ones.
The medals must be sized within a range of 70 millimeters (2.76 inches) to 120 millimeters in diameter. The thickness must be between three millimeters to 10 millimeters.
In terms of weight, the medals vary from 500 to 800 grams, which equates to 17.64 to 28.22 ounces. The gold medal weighs just a bit more than the silver medals, while the bronze medals weigh significantly less. During the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the gold medals weighed in at 556 grams, the silver medals were 550 grams and the bronze medals were 450 grams.
Beijing Winter Olympics medal design
Each Summer and Winter Olympics have unique designs, typically modeled after the host city and its culture.
The Beijing Winter Olympics are named "Tong Xin" this year, meaning "together as one." According to the Olympic website, the medal design is "based on Chinese ancient jade concentric circle pendants with the five rings representing the Olympic spirit to bring people together and the splendor of the Olympic Winter Games being shared all over the world."
🏅️🥈🥉Beijing 2022 medals named "Tongxin", meaning "Together as one", the medals feature five concentric rings embodying the traditional Chinese philosophy of harmony between heaven, earth and human beings. #medal #Olympics #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/b9mLDUORJM
— Beijing 2022 (@Beijing2022) October 28, 2021