2010 Vancouver Olympic Medals

I went to some of the venues of the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver on the weekend and I went to Royal Canadian Mint's venue.

For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the actual Olympic and Paralympic medals were shown to the public. You are allowed to view, touch (with gloves) and take a photo with the medals.

There was such a demand to see the medals that in the morning, around 10am when I went there, the line up stretched around the block and it was 7 hours long! My friends and I decided to go somewhere else and go to the other venues.

By 5:30pm, we decided to go home but I suggested we try and go see how the line up is at the Royal Canadian Mint. Surprisingly, when we got there, the wait was only 2 and a half hours. With this, we decided to just wait it out. We finally got in 2 hours later and I finally got the chance to take photos of the medals.

The photos are not that great since as a group, we were only allowed a maximum of 10 minutes to view the medals. These are my hurried shots of the medals.

A little background on the medals.

Thirty-four Mint engineers, engravers, die technicians, machinists and production experts have combined forces to create an unforgettable series of athlete medals.

The radically undulating face of the medals, evoking the iconic sea and mountains of the Vancouver-Whistler landscape, is the boldest evidence of ground-breaking creative and technical achievement writing a new chapter in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games medals. As powerful tributes to the performances of the Olympic and Paralympic Games athletes who will receive them, the athlete medals establish several milestones:
  • at 500 to 576 grams each, they are among the heaviest in Games history;
  • with totally unique designs, no two medals are alike;
  • laser etching was used to flawlessly reproduce the unique, West Coast First Nations designs on the undulating surface of the medals;
More details of the medals at mint.ca.


These are the gold, silver and bronze Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games medals.
These are the gold, silver and bronze Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games medals.

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