Danville, VA may be thousands of miles away from Sochi, Russia but with all the coverage we feel like we are there at the 2014 Winter Olympics! As the Olympics wrap up, athletics are getting their well-deserved medals for their impressive athleticism. If you are like us, you have been wondering which metals are used in the making of the Olympic medals.

History of Olympic Medals Materials

Although the winners gets what is called a Gold Medal, the last Gold Medal was given in 1912. Now gold medals are 92.5% silver plated with 6 grams of gold. Based on the price of gold today, a Gold Medal is worth around $600. The Silver medals, which are rewarded to the 2nd place athlete, are also made of 92.5% silver. This makes it worth about $370. Third place athletes are given Bronze medals. The bronze medals are made of bronze which is an alloy of copper, tin, and zinc and worth about about $3.50.

How Much Metal Used in the Sochi Olympic Medals

For the Sochi Games, 4,000 pounds of silver, 1,540 pounds of bronze and 13 pounds of gold were used to create all the medals issued. Each medal took 18 hours of work to make. There were 125 medals awarded this year and the USA will be taking home 28 of them.

The Closing of the 2014 Olympics

We've been cheering our athletes all through the games and hoping it is our guys and girls that get to take home the gold Olympic medals. Hopefully, all the controversies won't have an effect on the athletes and all will go smoothly.  It won't be long now and they will all be issued, the closing ceremonies will begin. It seems like it takes forever for the winter Olympics to start again. Congratulations to all the athletes! We’re already counting down to the Rio games.