Do Olympic Coaches Get Medals?

No, coaches at the Olympic Games do not receive medals. Medals are awarded only to winning athletes. Coaches are given medals in many other sporting organizations, however, such as World Athletics, Champions League, and the National Football League, but not in the Olympics—at least not formally from the International Olympic Committee.

There is increasing acknowledgment within the Olympic community of the herculean joint efforts of coaches, parents, and others who enable athletes to compete and win in the Olympic Games. Some national sporting organizations do award medals to coaches. For instance, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) grants awards to coaches. Prior to the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the USOPC established the Order of Ikkos, a prize that each medal-winning athlete can bestow upon their coach or other supporting figure. The Order of Ikkos prize is named in honor of Ikkos of Tarentum (now Taranto, Italy), who coached the pentathlon in ancient Greece and is the earliest documented Olympic coach.

Recognizing Olympic coaches through medals, albeit symbolically and not formally, is gradually catching on within the international Olympic community and among host countries. A prototype of the medals for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games allowed the awards to be split and shared. The medals for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games have a design consisting of two fused halves. The conjoined design is intended to represent, among other types of cooperation, the essential collaborative role of winning athletes’ coaches, teammates, and family.