The Origins of Medals and Its Use Today

A medal is normally an object that is circular in shaped where images, letters or both and can be either  cast, molded, sculpted, stamped, struck or placed with an artistic rendition. Award medals can be given to a single person, group or organization. Custom medals are given usually in recognition of exceptional performance or accomplishment in athletic, academic or any other field of endeavor.

Award Medals in Sporting Competitions

In sporting competitions, medals are generally awarded to the top three performers.  The various award medals are gold, silver and bronze.  The bronze custom medal is for the third top performer, the silver is for the second and the gold medal is awarded to the athlete who finish first or the best performer of them all.Honoring the winners in athletic competitions has been a tradition since ancient times.  They are also given tokens of appreciation as recognition of their athletic feats.  In ancient Greece, the victor is awarded with a crown made of laurel leaves.  But nowadays, custom medals are the usual token given to winning athletes.  For athletes, receiving custom medals is the highest honor they could receive at the end of the competitions.  The award medals are the symbols of recognition for the hard work and perseverance of the athletes in winning the sport events.

Award Medals for Academic Excellence

It is very heartening to easy young minds competing in contests that involve the intellect and depth of knowledge in various academic fields.   It does not matter if the contestants are children competing in a spelling contest or college students outdoing and outpacing each other in solving complex mathematical equations.  At the end of this intellectual battle, the best among them will be declared the winner.  And to show to the world that this exceptional individual won that contest, a symbol of that victory is given in front of an admiring audience.  That symbol of victory usually takes the form of custom medalsand every holder has every reason to be proud of it.  Award medals are not only a symbol of that victory but a precious remembrance of that momentous occasion.  Competing minds outthinking one another and in the end only one mind shall prevail.  It is indeed well deserved for that brilliant mind to receive a custom medal as a reward for that intellectual achievement.

The Honor of Receiving Custom Medals

In every field of human endeavor whether in the field of sports, science, literature, arts, military and others, it has always been the custom to award medals to individuals or groups who not only exceeded expectations but has encouraged others to the same.  These custom medals are not given to just anyone but to a special group of people who have hone their skills and abilities for a very long period of time and have publicly shown that they can be the best at their chosen field or endeavor.  A custom medal is a physical object that can remind its holder of that particular time when he or she was acknowledged as among the best.

History of the Olympic Medals

The Olympics has been played for more than a hundred years endearing the athletes to winning the priceless gold medal against hundreds of other competitors in the worldwide sports event held once every four years.  The award medals are what athletes consider to be the best merit to their efforts, way better than any jewelry people wear.

As time passes by, the trinkets of winning which started from the simple leaves turned into metals up to the more stylish custom medals that are being given out to this day.  It started back in the year 776 B.C. when the Olympiads reward the winners with olive wreaths .  It was during the first Olympic games of the modern era in 1896 when the medal giving tradition began with silver medals handed out to the winners of their respective games.  The later games then introduced the gold medal for the first place, silver medal for the second place and bronze medal for the third.  For about a hundred succeeding years, the shape and style of the medals changed from rectangular, doughnut-like, gilded, ridged and even an amorphous blob.

The medals don’t have standard designs as these are made custom to what the host country wishes for it to look like.  This is what has been giving the glorifying Olympic medal its various designs and shapes where host countries would imbed non-traditional materials that speak of their country.  Just like in the 1992 Olympics where the medals were mostly made of glass from Albertville.  In 2008, the use of foreign materials have been levelled up by the Chinese as they made use of a ring of jade into the medal that gave it the classic and modern look.  These medals were considered to be one of the best in the history of the Olympics as the host country China, spent billions of dollars on the whole event.

Today, the gold medals used in this event is actually made from silver covered with 6 grams of 24-karat gold and still the designs continue and are expected to be a lot more different from the ones before.  Looking back to how these medals were before, there would be such a great difference in its physical appearance.  Despite that however, the significance of all the medals have not degraded from the minds of the athletes who fight to winning them.  These medals are the most coveted prize in the worldwide sporting event.

All throughout the course of the Olympics’ history, the merits of the athletes’ success are signified by their medals that is of great value and one that a person can be proud of.  It signifies more than just triumph against other athletes but triumph in oneself as well.  With the medal worn on the neck, not only will the athlete be proud but his whole country as well.  The race to the golden medals of the Olympics is celebrated by countries all throughout the world, extending friendship and camaraderie among all who join the games.