Silver medal

A silver medal is a special award given to the person or team who comes in second place in a competition. In big events like the Olympic Games or the Commonwealth Games, athletes work very hard, and the winner gets a gold medal, the second-place finisher gets a silver medal, and the third-place finisher gets a bronze medal.

Silver medals are usually made from the metal silver or plated with silver, which makes them shiny and valuable. They are not just for sports; sometimes artists or others receive silver medals for their excellent work.

The idea of giving silver medals helps celebrate everyone who does a great job, even if they are not the very top winner. It shows that being in second place is still something to be proud of.

Sports

Olympic Games

Main article: Olympic medal

In the very first Olympic event, the winners' medals were actually made of silver. The tradition of giving out gold, silver, and bronze medals for the top three places started in the 1904 games and has been used in many other sports since then. The city hosting the Olympics is responsible for making the medals. From (/wiki/1928_Summer_Olympics) to (/wiki/1968_Summer_Olympics), the medals always had the same design. The front showed a design by a Florentine artist, and the back showed an Olympic champion. Later, from (/wiki/1972_Summer_Olympics) to (/wiki/2000_Summer_Olympics), the front design stayed mostly the same, but the back changed for each host city. For the Athens Games, a new front design was made because the old one showed a Roman amphitheatre even though the original games were Greek. Winter Olympics medals have had many different designs.

The Open Championship

In The Open Championship golf tournament, the Silver Medal is given to the player with the lowest score who is still an amateur.

Rejection of silver medals

See also: Bronze medal § Psychological study

In many sports tournaments, the team that loses the final game gets only a silver medal, while the winners get gold and the team that comes third gets bronze. Some athletes have chosen not to keep their silver medals after winning, such as Jocelyne Larocque at the 2018 Olympics. She was later asked by an official to wear her silver medal again.

Military and government

Some countries give out special awards called Silver Medals for brave or important work. Examples include:

• Austria’s Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria
• Italy’s Silver Medal of Military Valor
• South Africa’s Silver Medal for Merit
• The Civil Air Patrol’s Silver Medal of Valor in the United States.

Other awards

The Zoological Society of London gives a Silver Medal to people who help us learn more about animals and nature, including teaching others about wildlife and protecting it.

The Royal Academy of Engineering also gives a Silver Medal for amazing work in engineering in the UK, especially to engineers who have been working for less than 22 years.