Swimming competitions, triathlons and aquatic training camps all need swimming medals as achievement awards, and swimming medals will be exposed to humid air, sweat and even residual pool water during daily collection. Many event organizers find that low quality swimming medals quickly rust and fade after short term use, wasting event budget and ruining athletes’ collection experience. This article compares three mainstream raw materials for swimming medals, explaining the advantages and applicable scenarios of each material to help buyers select long lasting swimming medals matching aquatic environment characteristics.

Zinc alloy is the most widely used base material for mass customized swimming medals, balancing low cost and rich pattern restoration capacity. After double layer electroplating and sealing paint treatment, zinc alloy swimming medals form a tight isolation layer on the surface, effectively isolating moisture and sweat corrosion generated by aquatic sports. This material can realize complex 3D relief patterns such as swimming goggles, diving boards and water waves, fully presenting swimming sports characteristics. The unit cost of zinc alloy swimming medals is much lower than brass and stainless steel, which is suitable for school swimming galas, community aquatic fun games and large scale mass participation swimming events with tight budget. The production cycle of zinc alloy swimming medals is short, supporting urgent order delivery within fifteen working days for sudden aquatic competition arrangements.

Brass swimming medals have thicker metal texture and stronger natural anti oxidation performance, suitable for national level professional swimming championships and elite triathlon finals. Brass base material does not rely on thick plating layers to resist corrosion, and the metal texture still remains complete even if partial surface coating wears off after years of collection. Fine carving details such as athlete swimming strokes and pool track lines can be perfectly restored on brass swimming medals, with smoother pattern edges and higher texture hierarchy. Although the single cost of brass swimming medals is higher, the anti rust service life reaches more than eight years, avoiding repeated reordering caused by medal rust damage in long term event brand operation. All brass swimming medals can add customized anti corrosion sealing coating to strengthen adaptability to coastal humid aquatic competition venues.

Stainless steel swimming medals adopt fully anti rust metal base without any risk of oxidation and rusting, the optimal choice for permanent athlete commemorative collections. This material is resistant to salt fog, sweat and long term humid storage environment, perfectly matching coastal city swimming competitions and open water triathlon events. Stainless steel swimming medals support matte polishing and laser engraving processes, presenting minimalist high end texture suitable for international aquatic sports associations’ permanent honor awards. The mold opening cost of stainless steel swimming medals is relatively high, so it is more suitable for small batch high specification championship medals rather than mass participation ordinary event awards. Mixed material matching schemes can be provided for buyers, using zinc alloy for participation medals and stainless steel for champion swimming medals to balance overall project budget and long term collection durability.