If Rio residents think the curvy ancient Greek goddess stamped on the Olympic medals looks familiar, they wouldn't be wrong: she's modeled on Brazilian women. Sculptor Nelson Carneiro, 60, has created the 5,130 bronze, silver and gold medals at the national mint, called Casa da Moeda, near Rio de Janeiro.Carneiro says the sensuous side of the city inspired his depiction on the medals of the Greek goddess Nike ahead of the Summer Games starting August 5. Nike, the goddess of victory in Greek mythology, has been the face of Olympic medals since the 2004 Athens Games, with the Parthenon temple in the background.The medals may celebrate ancient tradition, but the technology mixes artisanal and 21st century techniques. First, Carneiro sculpts the design in clay and this is copied by a 3D printer. A steel mold is used to stamp the medals in a hydraulic press and medals are then polished to remove imperfections. Work on the medals started a month ago and will go right up to July 31, less than a week before the opening ceremony. The Olympics will have 2,488 medals and the Paralympics, which run from September 7-18, will have 2,642. Each medal weighs 17.6 ounces (500 grams), 20 percent more than the ones handed out in London and heavier than in any previous Olympics.The coveted gold medals are not really gold — they have 17.4 ounces (494 grams) of silver and just 0.2 ounces (six grams) of gold plating. Silver medals are fully silver. The bronze medals, though, are arguably brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, rather than bronze which typically mixes copper and tin. Paralympic medals contain small steel balls to help identify them by sound for those with poor vision.