Recycled metals become Winter Olympic medals
The medals awarded to winning athletes at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter games this coming February will be made with metal recovered from old electronics.
“We’re … excited that these medals will contain recycled metal recovered from end-of-life electronics, consistent with the sustainability philosophy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Don Lindsday, president and CEO of Teck Resources, a Vancouver metals firm.
Unveiled last week, the medals feature a variety of contemporary Aboriginal artworks and are undulating rather than flat — both firsts in Games history. The form was inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow and mountainous landscape around Vancouver and throughout Canada.
The medal designs are based on two large master artworks of an orca whale (Olympic) and raven (Paralympic) by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer/artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage based in Vancouver, BC. Each of the medals has a unique hand-cropped section of the abstract art.
Canadian industrial designer and architect Omer Arbel, also of Vancouver, used his knowledge of materials and fabrication processes to create the innovative undulating design of the medals.
