Olympic gold medals are actually 92.5% silver!
They have a thin covering of 6 grams of gold.

Although the medals have to be at least 3mm thick and 60mm wide, for 2012 it's the biggest medals so far.
They measure 85mm in diameter and 7mm thick and they weigh up to 400 grams.
Wearing a medal would feel like having a tin of soup hanging round your neck!

For 2012 the silver used in a gold medal is worth more than the gold!

The value of the metals in a 2012 gold medal is about £450 or $700.

In the 1896 games in Athens, they didn't have gold medals. The winners got silver and the seconds got bronze.

In 1900 in Paris the winners got works of art instead of medals.