Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded to first, second, and third place finishers at every event of the Olympic games. A total of 1,017 medals will be earned at this year’s games in Tokyo, Japan. Those medals have been designed specifically for these Olympic games. In fact, there is a new design for every Olympic location.

While the design for medals changes every Olympic year, there are some requirements those designs have to meet. The medals must be at least 60 mm across and at least 3 mm thick. The gold medal must include at least 6 grams of gold, and the silver medal must be at least 92.5% silver.

Historically, the summer Olympics have also dedicated one side of the medal to a depiction of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and a stadium. This stadium was originally the Roman Colosseum, but in 2004 it was changed to the Panathenaic Stadium in Greece to better represent the birthplace of the Olympics.

Every two years, a committee designs the medals that will represent victory at that year’s Olympic Games. They have some rules to follow but also freedom to create medals that uniquely capture the Olympic spirit.

What if you were on that committee? Design and create your own olympic medals that honor the world’s greatest athletes in a unique way.

• What Olympic games will you create your medals for — an upcoming scheduled Olympics or an imaginary one? Will you focus on the Summer or Winter games?
• Will you include the traditional design elements on one side of your medal or trade them for new ideas?
• What elements, people, landmarks, or symbols will you choose to honor on the front of your medals?

Need more inspiration? You can look at designs for every games since medals were first introduced here.