OLYMPIC GAMES
Paris 2024: What is the Olympic diploma and who gets it?
As well as earning gold, silver and bronze medals, Olympic athletes receive performance-related certificates at the Games.
It is common knowledge that the first, second and third-place finishers in events at the Olympic Games are awarded gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively. However, the Olympic diploma is an altogether lesser-known prize.
Who receives an Olympic diploma?
The top eight athletes in each competition are handed one of these certificates.
First awarded at the inaugural modern Summer Olympics, held in Athens in 1896, the diploma was originally given only to the winner and runner-up - who, incidentally, were also the only athletes to receive medals. It was not until the second edition of the Summer Games, which took place in Paris in 1900, that three medals were handed out. The practice of giving out diplomas was then expanded over time to include lower finishers.
According to an International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesperson quoted by the New York Times, diplomas started going to the top three in each event at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, before the decision was made in 1949 to award the certificate to the top six. In 1981, the IOC then opted to begin giving the Olympic diploma to the top eight.
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What does the Olympic diploma look like?
The diploma bears the signatures of the president of the IOC and the head of the organising committee for that year’s Games. Here is Mexican gymnast Daphne Navarro posing with her Olympic diploma, which she received for finishing eighth in the women’s trampoline event at the Tokyo Games in 2021:
Per the New York Times, the certificates awarded to athletes who finish from fourth to eighth come in a plainer design than those given to the three medallists. The podium occupants’ diplomas are described as gold, silver or bronze-hued, depending on the colour of medal won.