With the Sochi Winter Olympic games just around the corner, athletes will be competing for
bronze, silver and gold...or will they? The winners will actually receive a gold medal
made almost entirely of sterling silver. This first place medal will be practically identical
to the silver medal, except it must be covered in at least 6 grams of pure gold. In fact,
it was in the year 1912 that the last solid gold medal was handed out. The current bronze
medal is made of a metal alloy composed of mostly copper and tin - potentially valued
at only $4. Meanwhile, athletes who win first place on February, 15th, 2014, will receive
"cosmic medals" which are gold medals embedded with fragments of the super bolide meteor
which exploded over Chelyabinsk Russia exactly one year ago.
But gold medals weren't always awarded to champions. At the Games of the I Olympiad
in 1896, winners received a silver medal along with an olive branch. The runner up got a
bronze medal with third place finishers receiving nothing. China also received nothing at the
olympics for a long period of time, with their first olympic medal coming in 1984.
And while the Olympians may train in gynasiums, the word gymnasium actually comes from the
greek word "gymnos" meaning naked. So it's no surprise that ancient greeks competing
in the olympics were completely nude. Nudity would be hard to pull off at the winter olympics
though, which occurred for the first time in 1924 in (SHAMONEY) Chamonix, France.
Shortly after this date, in 1936, The Olympics were broadcast on television for the first
time. Held in Berlin Germany, during the Nazi regime, the fuzzy black and white images replaced
conventional radio coverage, drawing an estimated audience of 150,000 viewers.
Though as the Olympics grows older, some olympians seem to be getting younger; the youngest ever
olympic medal winner was Dimitrios Loundras, who was awarded a bronze medal in gymnastics
at the age of 10. On the other hand the oldest olympic medal winner was Oscar Swahn, who
won an olympic silver medal in shooting at the age of 72.
The first snowboarding olympic event was held in Nagano in 1998. It was Canadian Ross Rebagliati
who infamously took home the first gold medal ever in this event. In a scandal, he lost
his medal the next day because nanograms of marijuana were found in his body. Claiming
the cause was second hand smoke at the time, Ross is now entering the medical marijuana
business with his first cannabis cafe opening in Whistler entitled Ross' Gold.
Mix that gold with the blue, red, green, and black rings - and white background - and you
get the Olympic logo, representing the colours of every countries flag in the world. Unlike
the two cancelled Winter Olympics during World War II, it's a reminder of our international
communities consistently coming together.
And because of all the excitement surrounding the Olympics, we've decided to release a video
every single day, starting this Thursday, February 6th for 19 days straight. Can't wait?
Our amazing partners at the CBC already have 5 of the videos up now, for you to binge on!
Just head to cbc.ca/olympics/sciencesays to watch them before anyone else - there's a
clickable link in the description below!
That's right, we'll be looking at your burning questions like why we get nervous, does sex
affect athletic performance, the ideal Olympic diet, and more. It's a science blitz!
But we also want to know YOUR questions for this special series! Use the hashtag #ScienceSays
and let us know your burning Olympic questions!
And as always - subscribe for more awesome science videos!