Medals have been presented to event winners and runners-up since the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. For each host city, different medals are minted and the designs and sizes have changed through time. Explore them by clicking on the medals below.

Athens 1896 Thickness: 3.8mmDiameter: 48mmWeight: 47gQuantity: 100Designer: Jules Clement Chaplain Winners at the first modern Olympics did not receive a gold medal but a silver one. Runners-up had copper. On the front Zeus, father of the Gods, holds Nike, the goddess of victory. The Acropolis is shown on the back.

Paris 1900 Thickness: 3.2mmDimensions: 59mm x 41mmWeight: 53gQuantity: --Designer: Frederique Vernon Gold, silver and bronze medals for the first time, and the only rectangular design amid the discs. Nike is on the front, a victorious athlete on the back.

Saint Louis 1904 Thickness: 3.5mmDiameter: 37.8mmWeight: 21gQuantity: --Designer: Dieges and Clust staff These feature an athlete holding the victory symbol of a laurel crown, in front of a relief which shows the ancient Olympic disciplines. Nike is on the other side.

London 1908 Thickness: 4.4mmDiameter: 33mmWeight: 21gQuantity: 250gDesigner: Bertram Mackennal Australian sculptor Bertram Mackennal - who designed the King George V coins and stamps - depicted two women crowning an athlete with laurel, and England's patron saint, St George.

Stockholm 1912 Thickness: 1.5mmDiameter: 33.4mmWeight: 24gQuantity: 90Designer: Bertram Mackennal/Erik Lindberg Stockholm's medals include an image of a herald declaring the opening of the Games and a bust of Swedish gymnastics pioneer Pehr Henrik Ling.

Antwerp 1920 Thickness: 4.4mmDiameter: 59mmWeight: 79gQuantity: 450Designer: Josue Dupon The reverse design celebrates the mythical Roman soldier Silvius Brabo, said to have thrown the hand of toll-charging giant Druon Antigoon into the River Scheldt at Antwerp.

Paris 1924 Thickness: 4.8mmDiameter: 55mmWeight: 79gQuantity: 304Designer: Andre Rivaud In the spirit of sportsmanship, the front features an athlete helping his rival to rise. The back has sports equipment and a harp - a nod to the Cultural Olympiad.

Amsterdam 1928 Thickness: 3mmDiameter: 55mmWeight: 66gQuantity: 254Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli wins an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

Los Angeles 1932 Thickness: 5.7mmDiameter: 55.3mmWeight: 96gQuantity: --Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli wins an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

Berlin 1936 Thickness: 5mmDiameter: 55mmWeight: 71gQuantity: 320Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli won an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

London 1948 Thickness: 5.1mmDiameter: 51.4mmWeight: 60gQuantity: 300Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli won an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

Helsinki 1952 Thickness: 4.8mmDiameter: 51mmWeight: 46.5gQuantity: 320Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli won an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

Melbourne 1956 Thickness: 4.8mmDiameter: 51mmWeight: 68gQuantity: 280Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli won an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

Rome 1960 Thickness: 6.5mmDiameter: 68mmWeight: 211gQuantity: --Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli While the design remains the same, these medals are set in a bronze "laurel leaf" ring and chain. The front and back designs are swapped over.

Tokyo 1964 Thickness: 7.5mmDiameter: 60mmWeight: 62gQuantity: 314Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli/Toshikaka Koshiba Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli won an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

Mexico 1968 Thickness: 6mmDiameter: 60mmWeight: 130gQuantity: --Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Florentine sculptor and painter Giuseppe Cassioli won an IOC competition to design the medals and from 1928 to 1968, the basic design remains identical. The front shows victory goddess Nike, holding a winner's crown and a palm. The back: a winner carried by a crowd.

Munich 1972 Thickness: 6.5mmDiameter: 66mmWeight: 102gQuantity: 364Designer: Gerhard Marcks For the first time in 44 years, Munich's organisers break from tradition on the back of the medal. Gerhard Marcks from the German Bauhaus design school depicts Castor and Pollux - the mythological twin sons of Leda who had different fathers: Spartan king Tyndareus and Zeus.

Montreal 1976 Thickness: 5.8mmDiameter: 60mmWeight: 154gQuantity: 420Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli The trend for a sparse design on the reverse of the medal continues with a simple laurel crown and the host city's Olympic emblem.

Moscow 1980 Thickness: 6.8mmDiameter: 60mmWeight: 125gQuantity: --Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli/Ilya Postol The idea of featuring the host city logo on the reverse continues, above a stylised representation of a stadium and Olympic flame and cauldron.

Los Angeles 1984 Thickness: 7.9mmDiameter: 60mmWeight: 141gQuantity: --Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli The medals return to Cassioli's design but were also worked on by American illustrator Dugald Stermer.

Seoul 1988 Thickness: 7mmDiameter: 60mmWeight: 152gQuantity: 525Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli Modernist again, with a dove carrying a laurel sprig and the Seoul Olympic logo - an ancient Korean Taegeuk symbol, like that on the national flag.

Barcelona 1992 Thickness: 9.8mmDiameter: 70mmWeight: 231gQuantity: --Designer: Xavier Corbero Spain's most famous living sculptor Xavier Corbero spruces up the figure of Nike for modern times and puts Barcelona's logo on the back - a blue head, invoking the Mediterranean sea; yellow, sunshine, open arms and leaping, red legs.

Atlanta 1996 Thickness: 5mmDiameter: 70mmWeight: 181gQuantity: 637Designer: Malcolm Grear Designers Back to a conservative Nike design. On the back is the Atlanta emblem of an Olympic flame and stars and a graphical laurel branch to mark the modern Olympics centennial year.

Sydney 2000 Thickness: 5mmDiameter: 68mmWeight: 180gQuantity: --Designer: Wojciech Pietranik The design stokes controversy, when critics point out the long-standing feature on the front of medals was not Greek, but a Roman coliseum. Australian coin designer Wojciech Pietranik put the Sydney Opera House and the Olympic torch on the reverse.

Athens 2004 Thickness: 5mmDiameter: 60mmWeight: 135gQuantity: 1,130Designer: Elena Votsi The Greeks went Greek, with a new depiction of Nike, flying into the 1896 Panathenaic stadium to bestow victory on the strongest, highest and fastest. Classic Greek lettering spells out the Olympic ode under the Athens logo.

Beijing 2008 Thickness: 6mmDiameter: 70mmWeight: 200gQuantity: --Designer: Xiao Yong The Greek goddess and stadium remain on the front. The coveted Chinese gemstone jade is inlaid into the back of each medal.

London 2012 Thickness: 7mmDiameter: 85mmWeight: 400gQuantity: --Designer: David Watkins The biggest Summer Olympics medals to date. Artist David Watkins says the key symbols on front and back juxtapose the goddess Nike, for the spirit and tradition of the Games, and the River Thames, for the city of London. On the back of the medals is the 2012 branding, representing the modern city as a jewel-like, geological growth. The logo is shown against a 'pick-up-sticks' grid which radiates the energy of athletes and a sense of pulling together. The River Thames runs through the middle as a celebratory ribbon. The bowl-like background recalls ancient amphitheatres, with a square balancing the circle to give a sense of place. The sport and discipline is engraved on the rim of each medal, all of which will be produced by the Royal Mint at Llantrisant, South Wales.

Chamonix 1924 Thickness: 4mmDiameter: 55mmWeight: 75gQuantity: --Designer: Raoul Bernard A skier stands in front of Mont Blanc with skis in one hand, skates in the other. Engraver Raoul Bernard put his name on the front, right.

St Moritz 1928 Thickness: 3mmDiameter: 50.4mmWeight: 51gQuantity: 31Designer: Arnold Hunerwadel Norwegian rising star Sonja Henie wins her first of three skating golds at this Olympics. Fittingly, the medal shows a skater spreading out her arms amid snowflakes.

Lake Placid 1932 Thickness: 3mmDiameter: 55mmWeight: 51gQuantity: 35Designer: -- A busy scene with Nike appearing over the Adirondack Mountains; the Olympic stadium and ski jump below. The ripples on the edge represent the shape of ancient columns.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 Thickness: 4mmDiameter: 100mmWeight: 324gQuantity: 36Designer: Richard Klein Favoured Nazi medal-designer Richard Klein depicts Nike driving a horse-drawn chariot over a triumphal arch, with winter sporting equipment underneath.

St Moritz 1948 Thickness: 3.8mmDiameter: 60.2mmWeight: 103gQuantity: 51Designer: Paul Andre Droz Snowflakes return, with an ice-cream-shaped Olympic torch and the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius - faster, higher, stronger.

Oslo 1952 Thickness: 3mmDiameter: 70mmWeight: 137.5gQuantity: 48Designer: Vasos Falireus/Knut Yvan The back features a pictogram of Oslo City Hall, the city's celebrated, blocky, landmark which opened less than two years earlier and was used as its Olympic emblem.

Cortina D'Ampezzo 1956 Thickness: 3mmDiameter: 60.2mmWeight: 120.5gQuantity: 40Designer: Costanttino Affer Milanese designer Constantino Affer crowns his 'ideal woman' design with Olympic rings and puts Mount Pomagagnon, which towers to the north of Cortina, under a snowflake on the back.

Squaw Valley 1960 Thickness: 4.3mmDiameter: 55.3mmWeight: 95gQuantity: 60Designer: Jones Herff The focus is on youthful competitors in this starker design. The space below the rings on the back is left blank for the sport's name.

Innsbruck 1964 Thickness: 4mmDiameter: 72mmWeight: 110gQuantity: 61Designer: Arthur Zegler/Martha Coufal Two designers each take a side. Martha Coufal puts the Torlauf Mountains on the front. On the back, Arthur Zegler entwines the Olympic rings with the city's emblem of a bridge over the river Inn.

Grenoble 1968 Thickness: 3.3mmDiameter: 61mmWeight: 124gQuantity: 250Designer: Roger Excoffon Typeface designer Roger Excoffon features a snowflake and red rose of Grenoble emblem on the front and a stylised pictogram of each sport on the reverse.

Sapporo 1972 Thickness: 5mmDimensions: 57.3mm x 61.3mmWeight: 130gQuantity: 89Designer: Yagi Kazumi/Ikko Tanaka The front depicts lines in the snow. On the back, graphic designer Ikko Tanaka - a founder of Muji stores - combines the traditional rising sun, a snowflake and the rings in a modern logo.

Innsbruck 1976 Thickness: 5.4mmDiameter: 70mmWeight: 164gQuantity: 71Designer: Arthur Zegler/Martha Coufal Martha Coufal, designing again, keeps the Innsbruck emblem and rings. The modernist reverse combines the Alps, the Bergisel ski area, and the Olympic flame.

Lake Placid 1980 Thickness: 6.1mmDiameter: 81mmWeight: 205gQuantity: 73Designer: Tiffany & Co. New York No laurel here, but a pine cone sprig. The Adirondack mountains are pictured on the front and evoked in the Lake Placid logo on the back.

Sarajevo 1984 Thickness: 3.1mmDimensions: 71.1mm x 65.1mmWeight: 164gQuantity: 95Designer: Nebojsa Mitric Nebojsa Mitric's highly-stylised design features the Games' snowflake emblem on the front and an athlete's head crowned with laurel on the back.

Calgary 1988 Thickness: 5mmDiameter: 69mmWeight: 193gQuantity: 89Designer: Fridrich Peter The First Nation person's headdress is made up of winter sports equipment. The snowflake and maple leaf-like emblem is formed of intertwining 'C's, for Calgary and Canada.

Albertville 1992 Thickness: 9.1mmDiameter: 92mmWeight: 169gQuantity: 110Designer: Lalique The first winter medals to use different materials: Lalique hand-made glass set in gold. The Olympic rings are pictured in front of mountains surrounding Albertville.

Lillehammer 1994 Thickness: 8.5mmDiameter: 80mmWeight: 131gQuantity: --Designer: Ingjerd Hanevold Ingjerd Hanevold chooses granite as the base material to reflect Norwegians' love of nature. She hopes the ski-man design is "humorous, sober and recognisable".

Nagano 1998 Thickness: 8mmDiameter: 80mmWeight: 261gQuantity: --Designer: Kiso Kurashino/Kogei Museum Traditional Kiso lacquer is used, sprinkled with gold and enamelled to make the designs. The 'snowflower' emblem of the Games shows athletes doing Olympic sports.

Salt Lake City 2002 Thickness: 10mmDiameter: 85mmWeight: 567gQuantity: --Designer: Scott Given/Axiom Design One of the heaviest medals, shaped like rocks in Utah's rivers. Designs differ on the back, where Nike embraces a competitor for each sport. Like the Salt Lake torch, they continue the theme of "light the fire within", with an athlete breaking through snow and rock.

Turin 2006 Thickness: 10mmDiameter: 107mmWeight: 469gQuantity: --Designer: Dario Quatrini The one with the hole; like an Olympic ring; representing the Italian piazza. Designed to draw attention to the place where the heart beats, as it hangs on an athlete's neck.