You may be aware that instead of medals to wear around their necks, champions in some ancient Panhellenic events, including the Olympics, were given victory wreaths (crowns). As a result, they are sometimes referred to as "crown games" (Stephanita). The palm branch was occasionally added to the wreath beginning in the fifth century. There were no gold, silver, or bronze medals in the early Olympic Games. Each tournament had just one champion, who was rewarded with an olive wreath fashioned of wild-olive leaves from a holy tree near Zeus' temple in Olympia. In respect with the traditional practice, olive wreaths were distributed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens...