Last Olympic gold medal
- Who
- 1912 Olympic Games held in Stockholm, Sweden
- Where
- Sweden
- When
- 1912
The History Behind Solid-Gold Olympic Medals
The original Olympic Games are thought to have been inaugurated in 776 BCE at Olympia, on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula, and were held every four years until around 393 CE. It’s still not clear why they began, but they soon became hugely popular – by the second century CE, when the Games were at their height, some 40,000 spectators would have packed into the stadium.
The event was primarily a religious festival – altars to various Greek deities peppered the site. Midway through proceedings, huge numbers of cattle were slaughtered in tribute to Zeus – king of all the gods – and a raucous barbecue ensued.
Initially, the Games were staged for a day only, but by the fifth century BCE it lasted a full five days. And what would those massed onlookers have seen? Running and long jump, shot put, boxing, javelin and equestrian events (including chariot races) were all on the cards. Also pankration – a boxing/wrestling hybrid martial art in which everything apart from biting and gouging was permitted. Unsurprisingly, given the martial nature of much of the disciplines, most competitors were soldiers, although the Games were open to every free male citizen, up to and including royalty.
Unmarried women could attend as spectators (and could compete in a separate festival in honour of Hera, Zeus’s wife). But wives were barred from the Olympics altogether – under penalty of death; and neither they nor unmarried women could compete there.
There were a few differences between the ancient contests and their contemporary iterations. For example, wrestlers and pankration fighters were covered in oil. And anyone guilty of a false start on the race track would face corporal punishment. Quite an incentive not to go too soon.
Oh, and all athletes competed naked.
The Olympic Games were held in exceptionally high esteem by the ancients. Such was their appeal that when Greece was invaded by Persian forces in mid-480 BCE, its city states struggled to raise a collective army as so many people wanted to head off to the Olympics.
And there were no medals. Instead, victors at Olympia were draped with a red woollen ribbon (the “taenia”) and received a palm frond and a wild olive wreath (olive trees grew on the plain where the events were held). There were other Olympic venues, though, with their own conventions: victorious athletes at Delphi received a laurel crown; at Corinth, it was made of pines.
Unlike today’s sports stars, who enjoy lucrative sponsorships and media spin-off opportunities, the original Olympians weren’t paid for their success. But the renown of their victories was thought to reflect on their home cities, and they were effectively set up for life on their return there; they even had the right to raise a statue to themselves.
So why did it end? The emperor Theodosius I, who was a Christian, banned the celebration of pagan cults in 393 CE. That included the Olympic Games. In time, Olympia was abandoned, although cultural celebrations and sporting competitions persisted until the sixth century CE in many Roman provinces that remained under the influence of Greece.
The modern Olympics were the result of one man’s vision. Baron Pierre de Coubertin – a pioneering educational reformer – saw sport as an essential part of schooling, and a means through which the world might become a better and more peaceful place. To that end, he organized the first Congress on Physical Education at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889; he went on to found the International Olympic Committee five years later. In 1896, the first Olympic Games for some 1,500 years took place in Athens, Greece.
Unlike the original sacred contest, they would be expressly secular, open to competitors from every nation and – and (since 1900) – even include women! And, of course, a winter Olympics now alternates with the summer Games.
The Era of Solid-Gold Olympic Medals
It took a while for the tradition of gold, silver and bronze medals to be awarded for the first three places at an Olympic event. In 1896, the winners of the first Games of the modern era received an olive wreath and a silver medal; runners-up were given a bronze medal, accompanied by a laurel wreath. Why no gold gongs for the victors? There simply wasn’t enough money to mint them; moreover, it’s thought that gold was too precious to be doled out at a sports contest.
Designed by Jules-Clément Chaplain – France’s premier medallist of the time – the medals were around 5 cm (2 in) in diameter. On the front was Zeus, his right hand holding a globe on which Nike – the Greek goddess of victor – stood. The rear featured a likeness of the Acropolis and the Parthenon.
At the next iteration of the Games, held in Paris, France, in 1900, most victors received trophies or cups, not medals. Only with the 1904 Games (in St Louis, Missouri, USA) were solid-gold gongs awarded (with silver and bronze for runners-up) – a tradition that persevered for the next two Olympiads. They were smaller in size than today’s medals, with gold and silver iterations 39 mm (1.53 in) in diameter and the bronze version a shade narrower at 38 mm (1.49 in).
Created by New York firm Dièges & Clust, the medal’s obverse side featured an athlete brandishing a laurel crown; behind him, a relief shows athletes performing sports from ancient times, with a Greek temple behind them. The reverse side features, once again, the goddess Nike on a globe. Before her sits a grand crown, within which the names of individual sports disciplines are engraved. Uniquely, they were tied to a coloured ribbon with a pin so that they could be attached to an athlete’s chest.
For the 1908 Games, staged in London, UK, the gold medal design broke firmly with previous years. Its front side boasted two classical-style female figures placing a laurel crown on the head of an athlete (a male athlete, mind you – how must female victors have felt about that?). On the reverse stood St George, England’s patron saint, on horseback – complete with slain dragon.
The 1912 Games, held in Stockholm, Sweden, were the last Olympiad at which solid-gold medals were handed out. The final medals ceremony of the event – for sailing – was held after the final race on 22 July. Teams from France, Norway and Sweden received medals within their four respective classes (6 m, 8 m, 10 m and 12 m). The helmsman of the winning yachts, and the mate of the victorious 12-metre yacht, received the gold gong, with the crew members taking away silver-gilt versions. In a charming vignette of the times, a garden party was held a few days later for the yachtsmen, hosted by HRH Prince Wilhelm.
The front of the gold medal bore the same design as for the 1908 Olympiad in London. The reverse, meanwhile, featured a herald announcing the start of the Games. To his right, a statue of Swedish sporting pioneer Pehr Henrik Ling, founder of the country’s gymnastics system. It was designed by Erik Jordan Lindberg and Bertram Mackennal and, at 33 mm (1.29 in), was even smaller than the previous Games’ medals.
Why Did Solid-Gold Medals Stop Being Made?
The winners at the 2024 Olympiad in Paris, France, took home gold medals that were mostly silver – a core of around 93% silver, to be precise, with the remainder comprising 6% copper and slightly over 1% gold for the plating. That melange of metals might make it seem as though the victors were being short-changed, but there were sound reasons for it. The mixture not only makes it cheaper to produce medals, but makes them more durable too: gold on its own can be soft and fragile. Hence the tradition of winners biting their medals (if their teeth left an impression, the gong was definitely gold). It’s still common practice today, but only because photographers insist on it.
Moreover, as the organizers of the 1896 Olympic Games knew, the rarity and costliness of gold made it impractical to use that medal alone for the premier medals. Over time, the price of gold has risen steadily: by 2024 it was around $2,400 (£1,900) per ounce, meaning that the Olympic Committee would have footed a bill of some $40,000 (£32,400) per medal for the last Games. The numbers of competitors has steadily increased too, meaning that more medals have had to be minted. Factor in medals for the Paralympics as well (inaugurated in 1960 in Rome, Italy), and the full cost of producing solid-gold medals for the last summer Games would have been about $80 million (£64.9 m).
Of course, all that gold has to be extracted from the ground in the first place, and mining comes with ethical and environmental considerations. Plus – in comparison to silver, for example – gold is harder to find within the Earth’s crust, and more difficult to mine, making it even more economically unviable to produce medals made exclusively of gold.
Fascinating Facts About Solid Gold Olympic Medals
Still, there’s undoubtedly something alluring about winning a medal made from pure gold. It has long held a special status among the precious metals. Historically, gold symbolizes singular achievement and prestige; in ancient Egypt, after all, it was associated with the sun god, Ra – one of the most important deities. It also stood for immortality, and it was used to decorate tombs and sarcophagi of pharaohs and nobles, as well as being hammered into thin sheets to form death masks. So sacred was it that people even ate it, as a tribute to the gods.
> Modelled on the god Osiris – the Egyptian deity of death, the afterlife and resurrection – Tutankhamun’s funerary mask combines hammered sheets of gold with precious stones including lapis lazuli, obsidian and turquoise. It was made in around 1323 BCE.
Ancient Egypt was also the birthplace of alchemy. Its practitioners laboured long and hard to transmute so-called “base metals” (such as lead) into “noble metals” (including gold).
That gold is rare, doesn’t tarnish, and has a unique warm lustre, only adds to its exclusivity. And as an investment, is it has been prized for millennia. The fact that gold retains its value of time has long made it an attractive and sound investment, especially in periods of economic uncertainty.
Public sales of solid-gold Olympic medals are scarce – perhaps surprisingly, given their rarity. One example from the 1912 Stockholm Olympiad sold for $35,851 (£29,068) on 19 Jan 2023. The name of the athlete who originally received it was disclosed only to the winning bidder.
It’s worth remembering that Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s founding philosophy for the Games stated explicitly that victory wasn’t the end goal: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
All podium finishers at the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris took away something that no previous winners had ever received. Created by French luxury jewellers Chaumet, every medal contained 18 g (0.6 oz) of iron taken from the Eiffel Tower – scrap metal removed from the city’s best-known landmark during repairs and maintenance. A unique souvenir to go with one’s Olympic gong.
Notable Olympic Events Featuring Solid-Gold Medals
1904, St Louis, Missouri, USA
Featured 16 sports, including football, golf, lacrosse, roque and tug of war.
US gymnast Anton Heida was the star of 1904, picking up five golds. But his fellow American George Eyser (USA) deserves a mention too. For starters, he won three gymnastics events himself, and securing six medals in all. Even more impressively, George had a wooden left leg!
Sprinter Archie “Milwaukee Meteor” Hahn triumphed in the 60 m, 100 m and 200 m. His time of 21.6 sec in the 200 m stood for a remarkable 28 years.
Other competitors are remembered for less worthy behaviour. Not least US marathon runner Fred Lorz, who won the marathon only to be promptly disqualified. It was discovered that he’d covered much of the race in a car, dismounting just before the finish line. His compatriot Thomas Hicks was promoted to the gold spot instead.
1908, London, UK
A total of 22 sports, including je de paume, polo, rackets and Greco-Roman wrestling.
This event earned its spot in history irrespective of any sporting achievements: at 187 days, it was the longest Olympic Games ever staged. It also marked the first time that a dedicated stadium was constructed for the competition.
In an act that epitomized Coubertin’s idea of the Olympic spirit, the final of the middleweight Greco-Roman wrestling was put back one day, as one of the competitors – Sweden’s Frithiof Mårtensson – had sustained a minor injury. Having recovered, he won.
Once more, the marathon had a dramatic conclusion. Italy’s Dorando Pietri was first into the stadium in the closing stages of the race, but all was clearly not well. He started running in the wrong direction, and then collapsed. Repeatedly. Well-meaning officials helped guide him across the finish line – but that meant he was disqualified, as he had benefited from outside aid. But although he lost the race, Pietri’s courage and indefatigable spirit earned him international fame. He was even presented with a special cup by England’s Queen Alexandra. And the episode boosted global interest in the Olympic Games.
1912, Stockholm, Sweden
Total of 14 sports including modern pentathlon, shooting, tennis and fencing.
Timing devices for the track events debuted at this Olympiad, along with a public address system and photo finishes. For the first time too, competitors came from five continents.
You have to feel for the cyclists. At around 320 km (199 miles), their punishing road race around Lake Mälaren – Sweden’s third-largest lake – was longer than any Olympic race in history. South Africa’s Rudolph Lewis won in a time of 10:42:39, more than 10 min ahead of his nearest rival. “His work awakened the greatest admiration on the part of the spectators along the course,” noted the Official Report.
But Indigenous American Jim Thorpe (whose birth name, Wa-Tho-Huk, means “Bright Path”) stands out as the star of the event. He obliterated his competitors in the pentathlon and decathlon, and in the latter picked up 8,412 points – around 700 more than his nearest rival – a record that stood until 1948. Heartbreakingly, Thorpe’s medals were taken away when it subsequently emerged that he had previously been paid to play a few games of minor-league baseball – contravening the amateur status that all Olympic sportspeople were expected to have at the time. Decades later, the IOC would reverse the decision and his medals were reinstated.
Hugo Wieslander and Ferdinand Bie, who took the decathlon and pentathlon gold respectively on Thorpe’s disqualification, never accepted the decision anyway. To them, Thorpe was the legitimate winner. That’s the Olympic spirit right there.