You may have noticed how closely related the words medal (as in Olympic gold medal) and metal (as the metal silver) are in English.  This is no coincidence.  The two words are written and pronounced very similarly, you can hear the pronunciation of these two words here by clicking on each one: medal and metal.
Although these words are related to one another they are of course not the same; the word metal is the parent word among the two.  Here our their definitions:

metal – a solid material that is typically hard, shiny, and malleable*
medal – a metal disk with an inscription** or design that is made to commemorate an event or given as a award

As you can see medals are made of metal; this is why among these two words metal is the parent word.  The most precious*** medals are usually made of precious metals.  The term ‘precious metals’ refers to specific types of metal including: gold, silver, platinum and copper.  They are considered precious because they are rare which makes them more valuable.  As I’m sure you know some money was made from these precious metals in the past, but these metals are too precious and rare to make money out of these days.  These metals are now most commonly used for jewelry and decoration and of course medals.

So, are the precious Olympic medals that athletes are competing for made out of real gold, silver and bronze?  The answer is yes, but there is more to the answer than that.  The last Olympic Games to give athletes gold metals made entirely of gold were the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.  In this year’s Olympic games the gold metal must be made of at least 92.5% silver and covered with at least 6 grams of real gold.  The silver metal must also be made of 92.5 % silver and the the bronze metal must be made from bronze (which is an alloy of copper) and can also contain tin.  There is no platinum medal at the Olympics, although platinum is considered to be one of the ‘precious metals’.

The Medal Ceremony at the Olympics is where the top three athletes in the sporting event receive their precious medals.  They are precious because they are made of precious metals, but also because of all the work the athletes had dedicated in their lives to winning this most prestigious**** medal.  In the Olympic Medal Ceremony the first place winner stands in the center of the podium***** and receives the gold medal, with the second and third-place competitors standing by the winner’s side receiving the silver and bronze medals respectively. After the medals are awarded the national flags of the three medalists are raised and the national anthem of gold medalist’s country is played.  I hope you get the chance to see one of these moving ceremonies and hopefully hear your own national anthem played.

*malleable = pliable; able to be hammered or pressed permanently out of shape without breaking or cracking
**inscription = a written message, often in metal or stone, as a lasting record
***precious = of great value
****prestigious = having high status
*****podium = a small platform on which a person may stand to be higher than other surrounding people