里约奥运已经拉开大幕，赛场上，来自世界各国的运动员都将为了一块金牌而竞相角逐。然而，这块沉甸甸金灿灿的奖牌，其实并没有大多数人想象的那么“值钱”。据悉，里约奥运500克重的金牌中，只有6克黄金……

　　Rio de Janeiro (CNN) The making of the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic medals is a mix of art and science.

　　里约(CNN)2016里约奥运会和残奥会奖牌的制作是一次艺术和科学的结合。

　　A team of about 100 people, including sculptors and machine operators, have been working in secret inside the Brazilian Mint to produce more than 5,000 medals ahead of the Games.

　　一支大概一百人的团队一直在巴西铸币厂内隐秘作业，赶在奥运会之前出产5000多枚奖牌。这支团队包含雕琢家和机器操作人员。

　　And while the athletes will be earning the medals, the makers of the medals feel an equal connection to their shiny masterpieces.

　　运动员们将奋力赢取奖牌，而这些奖牌的制造者们也觉得自个与这些闪闪发光的工艺品有着相同的关联。

　　"Seeing them on the podium, I’ll know I made that medal," said Nelson Neto Carneiro, the sculptor who made the mold for the 2016 medals. "I’ll feel like I’m getting a medal myself."

　　为2016年奥运会奖牌制造模具的雕琢家内尔松.内图.卡内罗说：“看到它们出现在领奖台上，我知道那枚奖牌是我创造的，那感觉就好像是自己获得了奖牌一样。”

　　Carneiro has made many coins during his 41-year tenure at the Brazilian Mint, but he said sculpting the Olympic medals is one of the most exciting projects he has done.

　　在巴西铸币厂工作的41年间，卡内罗制造了很多硬币，但他说，雕琢奥运会奖牌是他完成的最令人兴奋的项目之一。

　　While the mold can be made using a computer, Carneiro worked on it for two weeks by hand with precision tools that, he says, gave him more control over the design.

　　虽然能够运用电脑制造模具，但是卡内罗仍花了两周时间，运用精细工具，纯手工打造出了奖牌模具。他说，精细的工具能让他在设计上挥洒自如。

　　Once the hand-sculpted mold is scanned into a computer a CNC router, or a computer-controlled cutting machine, etches the metallic mold. Then the mold is put under a microscope for quality control before heading to the factory.

　　一旦手工雕琢的模具被扫描进计算机CNC，即电脑控制切割机，金属模型就被雕琢成功。接着，它将被放置在显微镜下，通过质量管理程序后，被送往工厂。

　　Factory workers then use a loud press machine to strike the mold with 550 tons of force -- three times -- to create the coveted round symbols of victory.

　　接着，工人们使用冲压机用来冲压模具，其力量高达550吨——且需冲压三次——就制造出了大家梦寐以求的、圆形的、成功的象征——奥运奖牌。

　　The gold medals go through an extra step called the "bath of gold." The gold medal is actually made of 494 grams of silver and 6 grams of gold.

　　但是对于金牌，还要经历一道被称为“镀金”的附加工序。事实上，金牌是由494克银和6克黄金制造而成的。

　　The melted gold and silver of a gold medal is worth about $587 in current market prices. The last time Olympic medals were made of pure gold was during the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.

　　以当前的市场价来看，将金牌熔化后所得的黄金和银总价值约为587美元。最后一次为奥运健儿提供纯金打造的金牌，是在1912年瑞典斯德哥尔摩举行的夏季奥运会上。

（编辑：何莹莹）