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The art of the Olympic medals and diplomas
On 4 October 1999, in Athens, the IOC announced the result of the competition for the design of the medals of the twenty-seventh Olympic Games (Sydney 2000). Among the 19 participant artists, the winner was Wozciech Pietranik, of Polish descent, who has lived in Australia since 1985 and had been invited to participate in the competition by the organizing committee of the 2000 Olympics. Pietranik followed in general the rules that had prevailed in the design of the Olympic medals after 1928, according to which Nike (ancient Greek deity) and an ancient stadium should be represented, among other things.
Originally, Pietranik had chosen to represent Nike visiting the Opera of Sydney, a building that constitutes the symbol of the city. However, after the intervention of the IOC, the Opera building was replaced by an ancient stadium. Pietranik, imitating an "error" that existed on the medal of 1928, which had not been noticed then, chose a Roman stadium, and a very famous stadium at that, the Colosseum of Rome. However, this stadium had no relation to sport whatsoever, as this had developed in the Olympic Games of Antiquity, seeing that the events hosted in the Colosseum had a totally different nature. Although the mistake was noticed and became the target of harsh public censure, especially from the side of the large community of Greek-Australian citizens, it was ultimately decided that there was no time to change the design of the medal.
In the Ancient Olympics the prize for the winners was an olive branch. When the Olympic Games revived, it was decided that medals and diplomas should be awarded to the winners, in imitation of the practices that had been adopted for the sports competitions during the 19th century. Therefore, the IOC and the organizing committee of the first modern Olympics assigned to certain distinguished artists the design of the medals and diplomas. It should be mentioned that in the Games of 1896 only the first two winners of each contest were awarded, and there was no gold medal. Back then, silver was considered more precious than gold, so the first winner was given a silver medal and the second a bronze. This practice changed in 1904. Since then, medals have been awarded to the first three winners: gold, silver and bronze respectively.
With regard to the themes represented on the medals, during the first organizations the most prevalent were those inspired from the Greek Antiquity. There was not any particular rule that ought to be followed. Nevertheless, from the 1920s, and most specifically from 1928, a rule was introduced that prescribed that on one side of the medals should prevail themes from the Greek Antiquity (the goddess Nike should be one of them), an ancient stadium (the symbol of the Olympic Games), the number of the particular Olympic organization and the name of the host city. At the same time, the organizers and the artist had the freedom to add certain elements, images or symbols of their own. For the other side of the medal there was no thematic limitation.
So, for the Games of 1896, the design of the winners' medal was assigned to one of the most eminent medal engravers of the 19th century, the French Jules Clement Chaplan. He had distinguished himself as an artist from the early 1880s, when he was pronounced member of the French Academy of Fine Arts. Apart from Chaplan's medal, the organizing committee decided the creation of a commemorative diploma, the design of which was assigned - after the refusal of the French painter Puvis de Chavannes - to one of the greatest Greek painters, Nikolaos Gyzis. Lastly, the commemorative medal was designed by a Greek painter as well, Nikiphoros Lytras. Both painters, in the second half of the 19th century, studied painting in the Academy of Munich, worked in Munich, Paris and in other European cities and are included in the founders of modern Greek painting.
The practice of awarding diplomas was followed in all the Olympic organizations after 1908 and was officially adopted by the IOC in the 1924 Paris Olympics. From the Games of 1948 (London) commemorative diplomas were awarded not only to the three winners of each event, but also to those who ranked fourth, fifth and sixth. Since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics commemorative diplomas have been awarded to the seventh and eighth athlete in the final ranking. Since the time of the first diploma, which was created by Nikolaos Gyzis for the Olympic Games of 1896, the differences in aesthetics and in the themes chosen for the medals are significant. In the first organizations the prevalent themes were those that linked the modern Olympic Games to the Greek Antiquity. Therefore, until the Games of 1932, the diplomas were decorated with themes drawn from the Greek Antiquity, especially the goddess Nike.
Particularly important as to the thematic renewal of the Olympic diplomas was the creation of the German artist Ernst Bohn, who designed the diploma for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Instead of ancient Greek representations, he preferred to present themes that highlighted the special elements of the particular organization: the Olympic bell (one of the symbols of the said Olympics) and the Gate of Brandenburg (the principal symbol of the city of Berlin). Ever since, the organizing committees have adopted the latter practice, namely to highlight the symbols of the city and of the particular Olympics. A characteristic case was the diploma designed by the Finnish Rolf Christiansen for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, which depicted a panoramic view of the host city with the prominent tower of the Olympic stadium, as well as the famous long distance runner Paavo Nurmi.
Lastly, a milestone in the history of the Olympic commemorative diplomas was the diploma of the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Then for the first time, preference was given to the aesthetic and thematic unity of the prizes and emblems of the particular Games, a choice that influenced the design of the medals (on one side), of the posters and diplomas. What is more, the above was not the work of individual artists, as was the case until then, but of a group of creators, who were responsible for the "look" of the Games.
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