By Staff
With the closing ceremonies of the Olympics shown on Sunday, the 29th Olympiad games have now come to an end.
What a great set of games it was. The United States won the most medals in the games with 110 total medals. That is 10 more medals than second-place China. While we defeated China in overall medals, they beat us in overall gold medals 51-36. After the golds, we won in the silver count 38-21 and the bronze count 36-28.
Just a cool medal note to look at, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won more medals on his own than 61 other countries.
After the closing ceremonies, I had someone ask me if the medals won in the games were really gold, silver or bronze?
After looking up some information and doing some research, here is what I found:
The gold medals are 99.9 percent silver and coated with six grams of 24-karat gold. The silver medals are 99.9 silver, and the bronze is made of mostly copper.
The information that I found went on to say that the Beijing medals had precious jade in their design.
The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.
Each medal in the Olympics must be 70 mm across and 6 mm thick, and the gold and silver medals must contain at least 92.5 percent silver and at least 6 grams of 24-karat gold.
I hope this answer helps in your question.
On a different note, sports in the area are beginning to take place.
Most fans in the area will be anxiously awaiting the start of high school and college football this week. W.S. Neal begins things at home on Thursday with a match up against Monroe County at 7 p.m.
T.R. Miller will begin its 2008 season Friday night in Atmore.
Alabama and Auburn will begin their 2008 seasons on Saturday against Clemson and Louisiana-Monroe respectively.
Alabama's game will be televised on ABC at 7 p.m. CST.
Good luck to all area teams in their games this week and until Sunday when we meet again here or out in the world of sports, God bless.