August 10, 2004
Athens 2004 Olympic Medals
The Olympic Games medals are one of the most important design applications, since they are given to the athletes, the real protagonists and heroes of the Olympic Games.
The medals for the Athens Games were presented on July 2nd 2003, in Prague. The main side of the medals has been changed for the first time since the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928. The main feature of the medals is the Greek character shown on both sides, which is of particular importance, as from now on all Olympic medals will reflect the Greek character of the Games regarding both their origin and their revival.
ATHENS 2004 aim was to modify the main side of the medals and to include Greek elements in it that would highlight the close connection between Greece and the Olympic Movement. Therefore ATHENS 2004 asked the candidates that took part at the competition to include the goddess “Nike” of Paeonios and the Panathinaikon Stadium in their design.
Goddess Nike was worshipped as the personification of victory in the stadium as well as in the battlefield. According to Greek mythology, Zeus sent her to earth to crown the winners. Historical research has showed that goddess Nike was always represented as “winged”, full of movement and dynamism, descending from heaven either to sing praises for a victory, or to offer libations, or to crown a winner. Moreover, in the Museum of Olympia there is a statue of goddess Nike, three metres in height, created in 421 BC by the well-known sculptor Paeonios. Supported by a nine-metre triangular pedestal situated at the east facade of the Temple of Zeus, she gave the impression that she was descending from heaven.
Since goddess Nike would fly into a stadium to crown the best athlete, at the main side of the medals she is represent in a similar way in the interior of a stadium, and more particularly in the Panathinaikon Stadium where the Olympic Games were revived in 1896. The main side of the medals will also include the sport in which the athlete won it.
On the contrary, on the medals awarded to Olympic athletes from 1928 until the Salt Lake Games, goddess Nike was seated, holding an ear of corn in one hand and a wreath in the other, while the second element of the main side was the exterior of an arena that resembled the Colosseum.
There are three elements on the second side of the medals.
The first is the eternal flame that will be lit in Olympia and will travel through the five continents by way of the 2004 Torch Relay. The flame is accompanied by the opening lines of Pindar’s Eighth Olympic Ode composed in 460 BC to honour the victory of Alkimedon of Aegina in wrestling. The design of the second side of the medals is completed with the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games emblem.