They converged: sea, mountains, ice, sun. No, these are not memories of the poetry of a classic and not a picture of a painter. We are talking only about the medals awarded to the winners of the Sochi Winter Olympics, their appearance. Indeed, according to the designers of the Olympic awards Alexandra Fedorina, Sergei Efremov, Pavel Nasedkin and Sergei Tsarkov, these medals were supposed to show variety. And not only the Winter Games in the south of Russia, but, in fact, our entire so controversial and contrasting country.
All is not gold that with glitter
In the manufacture of Olympic medals of the highest dignity alone, three kilograms of the best and highest quality gold were used. Moreover, they received it and processed it, and this was emphasized by the organizing committee especially in Russia. Which, however, did not mean that several hundred gold medals were exactly gold. They were based on silver - 525 grams per award. But the gold in the medal is only six grams.
The 2014 Olympic medals, including gold medals, were first shown in May 2013 at the St. Petersburg session of the IOC Executive Committee.
A small percentage of the "gold reserve" in medals is a categorical condition of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which does not want to turn a sports award into a piece of jewelry for the rich. According to experts, a Russian medal made of gold alone would not cost six thousand dollars, but 21 thousand.
The last Olympic medals made of gold were awarded to athletes more than a century ago, at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.
Look like a blanket
The dimensions of the 2014 gold medal: ten centimeters in diameter, one cm thick. The obverse, or obverse, is decorated with five Olympic rings and the inscription sochi.ru 2014. The name of the sport and the Olympic emblem are engraved on the reverse. And on the edge, which is otherwise called the edge, in three languages - Russian, English and French - the full name of the Games.
The round Olympic medal, decorated with a transparent polycarbonate insert in the form of a pattern of winter crystals, has an interesting "twist": its insert is not one-piece. Handcrafted by high-end engravers, the medal looks a bit like a patchwork quilt. Such a mosaic, in fact, symbolizes the show of the diversity of Russian culture conceived by the designers. Plus, presumably, it gives a serious economy of metal, the same gold.
The first champion of Sochi and the owner of such a colorful gold medal was the American Sage Kotzenburg, who won in slopestyle, one of the disciplines of snowboarding.
Hands off
It is interesting that before the award ceremony and the moment of presentation, it is strictly forbidden to take the Olympic "round" in bare hands and examine its unusual design. And even more so for outsiders. And athletes consider viewing before the start of the competition a bad omen. Exactly how they might look with a medal around their neck, they usually don't care.
However, according to the sports functionaries, the point is not entirely superstition, but that the gold medal is the property of the future champion, who has the right of "first night".
