Bronze medal Bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives a gold medal and the second place a silver medal. More generally, bronze is traditionally the most common metal used for all types of high-quality medals, including artistic ones. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri, before which only first and second places were awarded. Minting Olympic medals is
Silver medal medals have been of more varied design. In The Open Championship golf tournament, the Silver Medal is an award presented to the lowest scoring amateur player at the tournament. Silver medalists were known to suffer "self-recrimination and gold medal envy", particularly those who had lost championship games or missed out of the title by a close score, whereas bronze medalists were usually happy just to make the podium. In many sports with an elimination tournament, including those with a third place playoff (such as Olympic ice hockey, Olympic soccer, FIFA World Cup), silver is the only medal given to a