As the Winter Olympics draw to a close, what are the medals that the top athletes will be taking home made of? This graphic takes a look and also highlights the values of each medal.
The information in the graphic is based on detail provided on the official Olympics website. It’s perhaps a little less transparent than it has been for previous Olympics when it comes to the bronze medal; copper is the only named metal for this year’s medals, though I’d be surprised if there isn’t some zinc or tin lurking in it too.
The 2024 Summer Olympics medals were dogged by corrosion issues caused by a change in protective coating. This was a consequence of EU regulations restricting the use of chromium trioxide as a part of the medal surface treatment process, leading to a new protective coating formulation being needed. It seems, so far, that the 2026 Winter Olympic medals have avoided the same issue, though a design flaw in the medals’ ribbon attachment has caused some medals to break.
