Olympic Athletes Research Paper

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To any athlete, an olympic medal means success and victory. Athletes train and work, but few achieve this dream of winning an olympic medal. The medals are not only renowned for their symbolic meaning to athletes, but for their history and properties. The olympic medals have a massive, rich history. From composition to worth, there are many factors that make up these legendary medals. Gold, silver, and bronze medals have complex history, chemical and physical properties, and surprising value.
The Olympics are known for awarding gold, silver, and bronze medals to the athletes that come out on top. What most people don’t know is that medals weren’t always awarded to the top three athletes in each event. At the earliest Greek games, winners were …show more content…
Surprisingly, the gold medal is made up of primarily silver, but the element gold is also present in the composition of this olympic medal. The element gold is a transition metal, and it is solid at room temperature. The melting point of this element is 1947.52 degrees fahrenheit while the boiling point is 5173 degrees fahrenheit. Gold is very rare because it is the most malleable and ductile of all known metals, and gold is unreactive and unaffected by air, water, alkalis, and most acids. The silver olympic medal is made up primarily of silver. Silver is also a transition metal, solid at room temperature and very malleable. Silver has a melting point of 962 degrees fahrenheit, and 2212 degrees fahrenheit is the boiling point. Silver is not very reactive, and it does not dissolve in acids excluding nitric acid. Finally, the bronze olympic medal is composed of copper and zinc. Copper makes up most of the medal. Copper is a transition metal, and solid at room temperature. It has a melting point of 1981.4 degrees fahrenheit, and it has a boiling point of 4652.6 degrees fahrenheit. Copper, similar to silver, is unreactive except for with nitric acid. Copper is also malleable and able to be formed into intricate surfaces without breaking. To most the olympic medals are simply gold, silver, and bronze, but they really have complex chemical and physical …show more content…
They have not been made of pure gold since the olympics in stockholm in 1912. However, the gold medals are not composed exactly the same every olympic games. At the Rio games a gold medal was worth $565. Unlike gold and bronze medals, silver medals are composed completely of silver. A silver medal is worth $315. Finally, a bronze medal is typically composed of copper and zinc. Because this medal is not made up of pure copper, its worth is only about $2.38. While medals are immensely valuable to all athletes, the real worth of the olympic medals is very
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