what are the three types of olympic medals
Olympic medal An Olympic medal is awarded to successful competitors at one of the Olympic Games. There are three classes of medal: gold, awarded to the winner; silver, awarded to the 1st runner-up; and bronze, awarded to the second runner-up. The granting of awards is laid out in detail in the Olympic protocols.
2008 Summer Olympics medal table Athletes from 87 countries won medals, leaving 115 countries without a medal, and 54 of them won at least one gold medal. Both of these categories set new records until surpassed in 2016. Athletes from China won the most gold medals, with 48 gold medals. Athletes from the United States won the most total medals, with 112. Afghanistan,[2] Mauritius,[3] Sudan,[4] Tajikistan[5] and Togo[6] won their first Olympic medals. Athletes from Mongolia (which previously held the record for most medals without a gold)[7] and Panama[8] won their first gold medals. Serbian swimmer Milorad Čavić won the first medal for the country as an independent NOC. Serbian athletes have previously won medals as nationals of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.[9] Samoa won its first Olympic medal due to medals reallocation after the IOC retested doping samples in 2016.