A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. The award concept arose in the military, initially by simple recognition of military rank, and later by decorations for admission to military orders dating back to medieval times.
Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have been awarded in the arts, for example, by the Royal Danish Academy, usually as a symbol of an award to give an outstanding student some financial freedom. Others offer only the prestige of the award. Many organizations now award gold medals either annually or extraordinarily, including UNESCO and various academic societies.
While most gold medals are solid gold, notable exceptions are gold-plated and often silver-gilt, like those of the Olympic Games, the Lorentz Medal, the United States Congressional Gold Medal (displayed to the right) and the Nobel Prize medal. Nobel Prize medals consist of 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. Before 1980 they were struck in 23 carat gold.
Read more about Gold Medal: Military Origins, Competition Medals, Olympic Games, Other Gold Medal Awards
Other articles related to "gold medal, medal, gold, medals, gold medals":
... On 22 March 2008, at the age of 14, she took the gold medal in women's 100 m butterfly at the 2008 European Aquatics Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands ... On the next day, in the finals for the women's 100 m butterfly, she won the gold medal and improved her world record time to 56.06 ... Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, she defended her 2008 gold medal by winning the women's 100 m butterfly stroke ...
... in Los Angeles Thompson competed in the Women's Coxed Four event the Canadian team won a silver medal behind gold winner Romania ... At the 1991 World Championships in Austria she won a gold medal in coxed eight with the Canadian team ... Next year, at the 1992 World Championships in Barcelona she again won a gold medal in coxed eight ...
... Lauren Burns Medal record Competitor for Australia Women’s taekwondo Olympic Games Gold 2000 Sydney 49 kg World Championships Bronze 1997 Hong Kong 51 kg A ... She has also won medals at many other competitions outside Australia ... less than a month before the Sydney Olympics, she was awarded the Australian Sports Medal ...
... The award of a gold medal, often coupled with the award of silver and bronze medals to the next place finishers, has been adopted in other competitive fields, such as music and writing ... Typically bronze medals are awarded only to third place, but in some contests there is some variety, such as International barbershop music contests where bronze medals are awarded for ...
... (born May 16, 1969) is a former American track and field athlete, winner of three gold medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics and 1992 Summer Olympics ... m, but also proved his mettle in senior competition, by winning the Olympic gold medal ... In the Olympic Games at Seoul, Reynolds was the clear favourite to win the gold medal, and few people took Lewis' chances seriously, but in the Olympic ...
Famous quotes containing the word gold:
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)