A medal that sits skewed on the chest all day is the most common complaint after a race, and it is almost never the casting.

The bar width

If the ribbon is narrower than the opening in the medal, the medal slides along it and settles at an angle. Every time.

The fix is free: cut the ribbon to the opening you have actually made rather than to a stock width.

The bail placement

The loop has to sit on the balance point of the finished medal, not the middle of the drawing. A heavy element on one side pulls it round.

This is why spinner and moving-part medals hang crooked more often than plain ones.

The drop length

Half the ribbon length is where the medal ends up. There is a real difference between a medal at the sternum and one swinging at the navel, and juniors need a shorter drop than adults.

It is a choice, and it is usually left as a default.

The weight it was drawn for

A design signed off flat on a screen has no weight in it. Once the gauge and any moving parts are added, the balance point moves.

We place the bail after that, which is why the sample matters more than the render.