You may know that instead of receiving medallions to hang around their necks, winners in ancient Panhellenic games, including the Olympics, received victory wreaths (crowns). From the 5th century on, the palm branch was sometimes added, in addition to the wreath. The laurel was not yet synonymous with victory and successful competitors at the Olympics did not receive laurel wreaths. That's not to say laurel wreaths were completely dissociated from victory, but in only one of the Panhellenic games, did the victor win the laurel.
Join the discussion of laurels
Source: "The Isthmian Victory Crown," by Oscar Broneer; American Journal of Archaeology (1962), pp. 259-263.
The Olympics
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At the Olympics, the victor received a wreath made of wild olive from the tree behind the temple of Zeus.
"[5.7.6] These things then are as I have described them. As for the Olympic games, the most learned antiquaries of Elis say that Cronus was the first king of heaven, and that in his honor a temple was built in Olympia by the men of that age, who were named the Golden Race. When Zeus was born, Rhea entrusted the guardianship of her son to the Dactyls of Ida, who are the same as those called Curetes. They came from Cretan Ida – Heracles, Paeonaeus, Epimedes, Iasius and Idas.[5.7.7] Heracles, being the eldest, matched his brothers, as a game, in a running-race, and crowned the winner with a branch of wild olive, of which they had such a copious supply that they slept on heaps of its leaves while still green. It is said to have been introduced into Greece by Heracles from the land of the Hyperboreans, men living beyond the home of the North Wind."
Pausanias 5.7.6-7
Pythian Games
At the Pythian Games, victors received laurel wreaths, with the laurel coming from the Vale of Tempe. Pausanias writes:"The reason why a crown of laurel is the prize for a Pythian victory is in my opinion simply and solely because the prevailing tradition has it that Apollo fell in love with the daughter of Ladon."
Pausanias 10.7.8
Nemean Games
The victory wreath at the Nemean Games was made of celery."Two wreaths of wild celery crowned him, when he appeared at the Isthmian festival; and Nemea does not speak differently."
From Pindar Olympian 13
See Myth Monday: The First Olympics for information on the founding of the Nemean Games.
Isthmian Games
The Isthmian Games provided either celery or pine wreaths."I sing the Isthmian victory with horses, not unrecognized, which Poseidon granted to Xenocrates, [15] and sent him a garland of Dorian wild celery for his hair, to have himself crowned, thus honoring the man of the fine chariot, the light of the people of Acragas."Plutarch discusses the change from celery [here, parsley] to pine in his Quaestiones Convivales 5.3.1
From Pindar Isthmian 2
