{"id":19166,"date":"2024-10-01T21:02:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T18:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/?p=19166"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:05:18","slug":"the-medal-of-the-first-international-olympic-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/the-medal-of-the-first-international-olympic-games\/","title":{"rendered":"The medal of the First International Olympic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The association of medals with sporting events has a long history. Among the precursors of modern Olympic medals are the gold \u201cvictory medals\u201d awarded as prizes at the universal games of Olympia Alexandria<\/em> in Veria in the 3rd century AD. They have been found in hoards in Abukir, Egypt, and Tarsus, Cilicia. A \u201cmedal\u201d of this type exhibited in the Hall of Medals of the Numismatic Museum depicts Victory carving an inscription on a shield (Fig. 1<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

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Fig. 1:\u00a0<\/strong>Gold “medal”, c. 230-250 AD (reverse), NM 1\/1963<\/h6>\n

In the first modern Olympic Games (from 1896 to 1904), medals were awarded only to the first two winners. The first winner’s medal was silver and the second winner’s bronze. This choice was made intentionally because it was considered that a gold medal would not be in keeping with the spirit of the games, which did not focus on monetary rewards.<\/p>\n

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Fig. 2:\u00a0<\/strong>The silver medal of the first winner in the events of the first International Olympic Games, Athens 1896 (obverse), NM 1895\/6 \u039d\u03a4\u0384 1<\/h6>\n

The medal of the winners of the first International Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 was designed by the French engraver Jules-Cl\u00e9ment Chaplain. It depicts Zeus holding a globe on which stands a Victory holding an olive branch (Fig.2<\/strong>). The representation was inspired by the cult statue that Phidias created for the temple of Olympia. Victory \u2013 the personification of Greece or the Revival of the ancient Olympic Games according to other versions \u2013 is also depicted on the gold commemorative medal of the first Olympic Games (Fig. 3<\/strong>), which was created by the painter Nikephoros Lytras. The representation is accompanied by the mythical bird Phoenix, a symbol of rebirth.<\/p>\n

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Fig. 3\u00a0<\/strong>Gold-plated commemorative medal of the first International Olympic Games, Athens 1896 (obverse), NM 1895\/6 \u039d\u039c\u0391 5<\/h6>\n

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Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glytsi, E. 2004. Victory in the medals of the Olympic Games, in\u00a0Niki-<\/em>Victoria<\/em>, Coins and Medals<\/em>, 12-23. Athens: Ministry of Culture, Numismatic Museum.<\/p>\n

Stogias, G. and Ralli, E. 2008. \u201cThe world of the medal\u201d. In E. Apostolou and G. Nikolaou (eds.),\u00a0The History of the Coin<\/em>, 122-129. Athens: Numismatic Museum, Stavros Niarchos Foundation.<\/p>\n

Triantafyllidou, Z.-M. 1993. Medals and Plaques. Views from the work of well-known Greek sculptors and metalworkers 1850-1986\/7, within the context of the contemporary international Renaissance of the genre<\/em>, Volume 1. Athens: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Sofia N. Saripolou Library.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The association of medals with sporting events has a long history…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-sanctuaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19166"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19192,"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19166\/revisions\/19192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nummus.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}