The world got an early peak on Thursday at the medals to be awarded at both the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The medals are based on two large master artworks of an orca whale (Olympic) and raven (Paralympic) by Canadian designer/artist Corrine Hunt. Each of the medals has a unique hand-cropped section of the abstract art, making every medal one-if-a-kind.
Another unique touch to the design, compared to medals of the past, is the actual form of the medals themselves. Their unique contours are said to be inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow and the mountainous landscape found in our region and throughout Canada. The Olympic medals are circular in shape while with Paralympic medals are a squared circle. Their weight varies between 500-576 grams depending on the medal making them among the heaviest medals in the history of the games.
Perhaps the most creative part of these gems is the materials used to construct them. Vancouver metals giant Teck Resources has recovered materials from recycled TVs, computers, cellphones and keyboards that might have otherwise ended up as e-waste. The use of smelted cathode ray tube glass, computer parts and circuit boards are combined with metals from other sources to produce the weighty mass.
The medals have a durable blue, white and green synthetic ribbon that carries the name of the games, Vancouver 2010, and the Games' motto, "With Glowing Hearts," in both English and French.
The medals were produced by the Royal Canadian Mint for the first time since 1976 and have a collective worth of about $1.8 million based on current metal prices.
I believe these are probably the nicest medals we have seen produced for the Games in several years. The fact that each design has a distinct portion of the orca or raven artwork make these unique to each athlete and sure to stand out for many years to come.
To see more pictures, click here.
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