Winning an Olympic medal is something athletes work towards their entire lives. It is an accomplishment that has so much meaning to the people who do it, it’s hard to put into words. Winning something for your country has to be one of the most proud moments in these people’s lives. I know it would be for me. So when you win something as iconic and celebrated as an Olympic medal, you expect it to be of the highest quality that can be found. Well now you can see for yourself the care and attention to detail that the designers of the medals put into them. This is quite incredible.
The National Mint of Brazil were the ones responsible for making the medals for 2016. It’s quite a tedious process that has been going on for months.
A design is first rendered on a computer program to see what the medals will look like.
The designs are then hand carved into pieces of clay.
The detail is incredible, and truly a beautiful work of art.
This worker prepares plates of metal that will be used to make the actual medals.
He then feeds them through a piece of machinery called a rolling mill.
Molten metal is then poured into a mold.
This is what the mold looks like after it is poured.
A CNC machine carves out the fine details of the medal.
The medals are then cleaned off and polished.
The medals are then varnished.
The medals are then dipped in gold. Silver is actually the major metal that makes up the gold medals.
A close up of what they look like.
There’s the gold color!
Workers then stamp the sport into the side of each medal by hand.
Handling these would be extremely stressful.
The medals are then carefully wrapped up.
They are then packaged up for presentation to the athletes.
The medals are all made by the people at the National Mint of Brazil.
I can’t imagine being an athlete and receiving one of these. What an honor.
The finished product. These looks absolutely beautiful.
I wonder how long the designing of each Olympic games medals take? The artwork on the front really is beautiful, and must have been done by a very talented person. The Olympic games have always been one of my favorite things to watch. Whether it was summer or winter, I would be glued to my T.V. watching these amazing athletes perform feats that some people would consider humanly impossible. They are truly the best athletes on the planet.