Though causing some degree of consternation among language purists (possibly partly because it only seems to surface at biennial intervals coinciding with the summer or winter Olympics), use of the word medal as a verb meaning ‘to win/receive a medal’ has in fact been around for some time. The first recorded usage dates back to 1822, with an original sense described in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘to decorate or honour with a medal’. Early examples were transitive and usually in the passive form as in e.g. He was medalled by the King. The intransitive sense relating to sporting achievement appeared some time later, coming into US English in the 1960s and now common parlance amongst athletes and within sporting domains generally.

Though causing some degree of consternation among language purists (possibly partly because it only seems to surface at biennial intervals coinciding with the summer or winter Olympics), use of the word medal as a verb meaning ‘to win/receive a medal’ has in fact been around for some time. The first recorded usage dates back to 1822, with an original sense described in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘to decorate or honour with a medal’. Early examples were transitive and usually in the passive form as in e.g. He was medalled by the King. The intransitive sense relating to sporting achievement appeared some time later, coming into US English in the 1960s and now common parlance amongst athletes and within sporting domains generally.