What the lady on Olympic medals means?

By Sona Kadam on August 19, 2016 at 3:43 PM

For years the Olympic medals are given o the players performing the best but have you ever noticed Olympics, yes then you sure must have noticed the lady on the observer side of the medal. But do you know who she is and what she is doing there. No than here we will tell you in the story.

The first Olympic medals in 1896 were designed by French sculptor Jules-Clément Chaplain .For the first time in 1904 three medals a gold, silver and bronze was awarded to the winning players. Since its starting the design of the medals has seen lots of changes by the one thing which has not changed is the lady on the medals.

So who this lady is and what is her name?

The name of this lady is Nike , the Greek goddess of victory, Nike in ancient Greek religion, was a goddess who personified victory, also known as the Winged Goddess of Victory.The Roman equivalent was Victoria. Depending upon the time of various myths, she was described as the daughter of the Titan Pallas and the goddess Styx, and the sister of Kratos (Strength), Bia (Force), and Zelus (Zeal).

So in 1869 when the first medals were designed they showed Zeus( the god of sky) holding Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, on the obverse and the Acropolis on the reverse. And you will be surprised to know that The sports equipment company Nike, Inc. is named after the Greek goddess Nike and the Honda motorcycle company’s logo is also inspired by the goddess Nike.

New designs

In 1923 (IOC) launched a competition for sculptors to design the medals for the Summer Olympic Games. Giuseppe Cassioli’s Trionfo design was chosen as the winner in 1928.The obverse brought back Nike but this time as the main focus, holding a winner’s crown and palm with a depiction of the Colosseum in the background.

But what we see today in the backgrounds of the Olympics is not Colosseum.

The obverse remained true to the Trionfo design until the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, where the IOC allowed an updated version to be created. For the next few events they mandated the use of the Nike motif but allowed other aspects to change.

The trend ended in 2004 due to the negative publicity in reaction to the design of medal for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Wojciech Pietranik, the designer of the medal, along with the organisers of the Games were criticised by the Greek press for using the Roman Colosseum rather than the Greek Parthenon.

Panathinaiko Stadium:

Pietranik’s original design had featured the Sydney Opera House on the obverse but the IOC concluded that it should be replaced by the Colosseum and a chariot rider. He made the changes and, despite the criticism, the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games decided to continue with the design as it was, noting that there was insufficient time to complete another version and that it would be too costly.

The error had remained for 76 years until a new style depicting the Panathinaiko Stadium was introduced at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.This new obverse design would go on to be used at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Games.

So the background that we see today is the Panathinaiko Stadium from Athens.