What is the major component (by weight) of modern Olympic gold medals?

Modern Olympic "gold" medals are made mostly of silver. According to the rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a gold medal must be made of at least 92.5% silver (sterling silver) and must be plated with at least 6 grams of pure gold.

Olympic medal rules:

• Gold medal: at least 92.5% silver, plated with at least 6 g of gold.
• Silver medal: at least 92.5% silver.
• Bronze medal: mostly copper, usually with some zinc and tin.
• Each medal must be at least 60 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick.

History of Olympic medals:

At the first modern Olympics in Athens (1896), winners received a silver medal and an olive branch; runners-up received a bronze medal. There was no gold medal.

At the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, the tradition of gold, silver and bronze medals for the first three places began.

The last Olympic gold medals made of solid gold were awarded at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.

Interesting recent medal facts:

• At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the medals were made from metal recovered from about 79,000 tonnes of donated old electronic devices, such as mobile phones, collected from the Japanese public.
• At the Paris 2024 Olympics, each medal included a hexagonal piece of original iron from the Eiffel Tower.

Design: since 2004, the front side of Summer Olympic medals usually shows the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, with the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. The host city designs the reverse side.

India's Olympic gold medals (individual):

Abhinav Bindra (shooting, 2008) and Neeraj Chopra (javelin, 2020) are India's only individual Olympic gold medallists.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Gold makes up only a thin plating (at least 6 g) on the outside of the medal.
• ✗Copper is the main metal in bronze medals.
• ✗Bronze is used for third-place medals.