In manufacturing, many things are made with molds. Molds
are often metal shells that are filled with materials that then cool into a
particular form or shape. Molds are used so that products can be made in the
exact same way over and over again.
When someone breaks the mold, we recognize that they have
done something differently than it has ever been done before. We often talk
about athletes breaking the mold when they set new world records that people
thought would never be broken.
You may hear the phrase “break the mold” often at the
Olympics. During each Olympic Games, new world records are often set by
athletes that train and then perform in ways that no one has ever seen before.
When they do this, they break the mold and earn gold, silver and bronze medals
for their efforts.
Of course, those medals they win? Those are made with
molds. Kind of ironic, right? Have you ever WONDERed exactly what goes into
those molds to produce those shiny Olympic medals?
The very first Olympians won wreaths of olive leaves for
their victories. Modern-day Olympians, however, win medals. The first Olympic
Games in Athens in 1896 awarded silver medals to first place (because silver
was more valuable than gold at the time) and copper medals to second place.
Today, Olympic winners get gold medals, while second- and
third-place finishers get silver and bronze medals, respectively. But are those
medals solid metal? Is a gold medal 100% gold? Not quite…
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