Abronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is amedal made ofbronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as theOlympic Games,Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives agold medal and the second place asilver medal. More generally, bronze is traditionally the most common metal used for all types of high-quality medals, including artistic ones. The practice of awardingbronze third placemedals in the Olympic Games began at the1904 Olympic Games inSt. Louis, Missouri, before which only first and second places were awarded.
Minting Olympic medals is the responsibility of the host city. From1928–1968 the design was always the same: the obverse showed a generic design byFlorentine artistGiuseppe Cassioli with text giving the host city; the reverse showed another generic design of an Olympic champion. From1972–2000, Cassioli's design (or a slight reworking) remained on the obverse with a custom design by the host city on the reverse. Noting that Cassioli's design showed a Roman amphitheatre for what was originally a Greek game, a new obverse design was commissioned for theAthens 2004 Games.Winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design.
In a few tournament sports, such asboxing,judo,taekwondo andwrestling, two bronze medals are awarded in each event – one for each eliminated semi-finalist or for the winners of therepechage brackets.[1]
In 1995, a study was carried out bysocial psychologists Victoria Medvec, Scott Madey andThomas Gilovich on the effects ofcounterfactual thinking on the Olympics. The study showed that athletes who won the bronze medal were significantly happier with their winning than those athletes who won thesilver medal. The silver medalists were more frustrated because they had missed thegold medal, while the bronze medalists were simply happy to have received any honors at all (instead of no medal for fourth place). This is more pronounced inknockout competitions, where the bronze medals are achieved by winning athird place playoff, whereas silver medals are awarded after a defeat in the final.[2][3] This psychological phenomenon was parodied in theJerry Seinfeld specialI'm Telling You for the Last Time.
