medal vs laurels

medal and laurels both are nouns.

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

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

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

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

medal (noun)	laurels (noun)
an award for winning a championship or commemorating some other event	a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction
	the state of being honored