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Olympic Medal Design on Call

Winning an Olympic gold, silver or bronze medal is the cherished dream of every serious athlete who participates in an Olympic Games.

Representing the culmination of a successful Olympic campaign, nothing symbolizes a moment of triumph, the laurels of the Olympic medal ceremony, standing on the winners' stand, the playing of an athlete's national anthem or a lingering sense of victory, like this exalted piece of metal and the ribbon from which it hangs. It is a ticket to almost instantaneous, worldwide respect.

But, because everything involved in an Olympic experience is also inextricably linked with the ambience and flavour of a Games' host country, Olympic medals, universally admired as standards of achievement, also reflect something of the culture of a host country. This may well be more the case with the medals that will be presented at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, because of the depth of the meaning these Games will symbolize.

With this awareness in mind, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) began soliciting design recommendations for Beijing Olympic Games medals on January 11, 2006, the first worldwide solicitation for such a design. Design recommendations should be presented by March 26, 2006. This solicitation does not include medal designs for the 13th Paralympic Games. 

"The designs for the Beijing Olympic medals should highlight the themes of 'glory and dream' and 'faster, higher and stronger'," said Zhang Ming, deputy director of BOCOG's Culture and Ceremonies Department, at a press conference. "The medals should be the material vehicles to disseminate Olympic ideals and the concepts of the Beijing Games, to showcase China's arts, design and scientific and technological development. They should become the unique legacy of the Beijing Games."

Designers are encouraged to use medals of previous Games as well as the emblem and mascots of the Beijing Olympic Games for reference. Anyone interested is welcome to contribute. The request forms for proposals and other related documents, including detailed information concerning design requirements, can be downloaded from the official BOCOG Web site at: www.beijing2008.com.

The solicitation campaign is sponsored by BHP Billiton, the diversified minerals and medals sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A complete proposal concerning Beijing Olympics medals should include images of the obverse and the reverse sides of the medals, ribbons, presentation boxes and the diploma. The proposal should include plane and three-dimensional designs, including chromatic and monochrome design drawings. Actual-size "effect drawings" of the relief model of the images of the obverse and the reverse sides of the medal shall be provided. The medals should be no less than 60 millimetres (mm) in diameter and no less than 3 mm thick.

The image of the obverse of the medal of the Olympic Games shall use a uniform image determined by the IOC. The image features a winged depiction of a standing Goddess of Victory and a panorama of the Greek Panathinaiko Stadium. The wording on the obverse of the medal is XXIX OLYMPIAD BEIJING 2008.

The image of the reverse of the medal should be unique in concept and vivid in style and should perfectly reflect the features of the Beijing Olympic Games and the characteristics of China. It should be compatible with the image of the obverse of the medal and conform to recognized standards of metal crafting.

After evaluations, eight top designs selected from the many expected to be received will be re-evaluated by an Evaluation Committee composed of BOCOG executives and experts from artistic- and industrial-design fields. As required, at the stage of re-evaluation, models "in-kind" should be provided. Three semi-final designs will be selected by the Evaluation Committee, and these will be forwarded to the International Olympic Committee for a final decision. Designers whose designs are selected for re-evaluation will be granted 20,000 yuan (about US$2,500) as awards and 30,000 yuan (about US$3,700) will be awarded to each of the three semi-finalists.

Zhang said that the final design will be selected by BOCOG and approved by the IOC. BOCOG will likely order revisions or re-design, if necessary, based on the three semi-final designs.

Sidebar

Since 1928, Olympic medals have featured the same design on the front: a Greek goddess, the Olympic Rings, the coliseum of ancient Athens, a Greek vase known as an amphora, a horse-drawn chariot, and the year, number of the Olympiad, and host city. Additionally, each host city is allowed to add special details to the design, and each host city is also allowed to design the reverse side of the medal. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) selected the ACOG logo plus a pictogram of the particular sport the medal was being awarded for.

In the ancient Olympics, no medals were given. First-place winners were given an olive wreath to wear on their heads; second- and third-place winners received nothing.

When the Modern Olympics was revived in 1896, first-place winners received silver medals. Strangely, at that time, gold was considered inferior to silver. Eight years later, at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, gold replaced silver for first place.

Today's "gold" medals are actually sterling silver covered with a thin coat (6 grams or .21 ounces) of pure gold.