Olympic gold medals are mostly made of silver with only a small percentage of gold. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set rules for the production and design of Olympic medals. The raw materials for the medals are specified as follows:

• First place (gold medal): composed of mostly silver with a purity of at least 92.5%, and plated with at least 6 grams of pure gold.
• Second place (silver medal): composed of silver with a purity of at least 92.5%.
• Third place (bronze medal): composed of bronze, an alloy made of mostly copper and another metal (such as tin or zinc) .

Therefore, Olympic gold medals are only plated with more than 6 grams of gold on the surface, while the base material is still silver. On the other hand, the silver medals are made of silver, and the bronze medals are made of bronze (a mixture of copper and another metal) . The medals awarded at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics were made of recycled e-waste.