the.com/gold medal

means The top prize awarded for first place in a competition, traditionally a medal made mostly of silver and plated with gold.

from 'Gold medal' is a straightforward compound — 'medal' traces back through French 'médaille' to Latin 'metallum' (metal, mine). The practice of gold, silver, and bronze medals for first, second, and third place became standard in the early modern Olympic Games, starting in the early 1900s; before that, prizes varied widely, including silver and even olive wreaths at the ancient Games. The irony that gold medals are mostly silver with a thin gold plating is a modern Olympic-era fact, not an ancient one — pure gold medals were briefly used but proved impractically soft and expensive.