By the conclusion of Rio 2016, 306 medals will have been awarded to athletes in 42 sports.
Many Olympians have said that their medals are deceptively heavy and much larger in real life than they look on television. In 1936, two Japanese pole-vaulters tied for second, and instead of competing further to decide who would finish second and third, they decided to cut their medals in half and fuse them together. Each competitor went home with a half-silver and half-bronze medal.
