A sport medal is a
tangible, durable reminder of a specific achievement, and serves as recognition
or evidence of merit. medal are often awarded for sporting events, from youth
sports to professional level athletics. In many sports medal (or,
in North America, rings) are often given out either as the trophy or along with
more traditional medals.
Originally the word medal, derived from the
Greek tropaion, referred to arms, standards, other property, or human captives
and body parts (e.g., headhunting) captured in battle. These war trophies
commemorated the military victories of a state, army or individual combatant.
In modern warfare trophy taking is discouraged,but this sense of the word is
reflected in hunting trophies and human trophy collecting by serial killers.
Unique 3D printed medal for Essenscia, the
Belgian Federation for Chemistry and Life Sciences industries.
A slang term for an individual or team's
collection of medals is silverware.[citation needed]
Contemporary sport medal often depict an aspect of the event
commemorated, for example in basketball tournaments, the trophy takes the shape
of a basketball player, or a basketball. Trophies have been in the past objects
of use such as two-handled cups, bowls, or mugs (all usually engraved); or
representations such as statues of people, animals, and architecture while
displaying words, numbers or images. While trophies traditionally have been
made with metal figures, wood columns, and wood bases, in recent years they
have been made with plastic figures and marble bases. This is to retain the
weight traditionally associated with a quality award and make them more
affordable to use as recognition items. Trophies increasingly have used resin
depictions.
The Academy Awards Oscar is a medal with a
stylized human; the Hugo Award for science fiction is a space ship; and the
Wimbledon awards for its singles champions are a large loving cup for men and a
large silver plate for women.
A loving-cup medal is a common variety of
medal; it is a cup shape, usually on a pedestal, with two or more handles, and
is often made from silver or silver plate.
Hunting trophies are reminders of successes
from hunting animals, such as an animal's head mounted to be hung on a wall.
Perpetual medals are held by the winner
until the next event, when the winner must compete again in order to keep the
medal. In some competitions winners in a certain number of consecutive or
non-consecutive events receive the medal or its copy in permanent ownership.
