BBC, 'medal' is not a verb.
Its not entirely the Beebs fault , this has been around a while and I think it was used at the last Olympics as well.
Lazy athletes patois moved into mainstream by the commentators picking it up from competitors and trainers possibly.
It sounds wrong to you (and me) but to others it sums up "the act or process of winning a championship or Olympic medal placing".
Winning sums up 1st place so how else would you summarise 1st , 2nd and 3rd place in one word?