With just over a week to go until the World Athletics Championship kicks off in Budapest, the event’s organizers have revealed this year’s stunning medal design. Unlike many sporting medals, this year’s design focuses on representing the event’s host country: Hungary.
“It was imperative that our medals connect sports, heroism, and national identity,” said Balázs Németh, CEO of the event’s local organizing committee. “Moreover, all three coaches of the podium finishers will also receive medals.”
The medal’s primary side features the Liberty Statue on Gellért Hill, a well-known landmark in the city of Budapest. The 771-foot hill offers sweeping views of the Queen of the Danube, as Budapest is known, and the 45-foot statue serves to commemorate those who lost their lives fighting for Hungary’s independence. Appropriate for its athletic purpose, the figure holds a palm branch—a familiar symbol of victory and glory that regularly appears on medals and awards regalia.
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The back side of the medal offers space for engraving amid a geometric design encircled in a race track, natch. The design is meant to resemble the brand-new, crown-like National Athletics Centre, where the events will occur.
The medals are made from brass alloy, which is then plated in gold, silver, and bronze. According to World Athletics, it took 308 pounds of precious metal and 1,476 feet of ribbon to construct all of the medals, for a total of 3,000 hours of work. New to this edition of the event, the medal case is made from sustainably-sourced wood and other “forestry raw materials,” while designers used leftover material from the track itself to line the box.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
