medal vs accolade

medal and accolade both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
medal	Yes	No	No	No
accolade	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, accolade is a hypernym of medal; that is, accolade is a word with a broader meaning than medal:

medal: an award for winning a championship or commemorating some other event
accolade: a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction

Other hypernyms of medal include award, honor, honour, laurels.

medal (noun)	accolade (noun)
an award for winning a championship or commemorating some other event	a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction