SPORTS BLOGS
SPORTS BLOGS
category: sports
15 Oct 2009

The official medals for the 2010 Winter Olympics were unveiled Thursday morning in Vancouver, featuring original West Coast aboriginal designs of an orca and a raven.

In an Olympic first, each medal will be unique, featuring part of an image cropped from two large master artworks by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer and artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage based in Vancouver, B.C.

For example, each medal will include its own signature elements of the orca and raven artwork, such as the suggestion of the orca’s eye, the curve of its dorsal fin or the contours of the raven’s wing, said officials.

A silk scarf printed with the master artwork will be presented to each Olympian or Paralympian with the medal, enabling them to see how their medal connects with those awarded to other athletes at the Games.
Guided by tradition

Hunt said she drew on the meaning of the creatures in native traditions to guide the designs.

“The orca is a beautiful creature that is strong but also lives within a community. I felt the Olympic Games are a community, too, ” said Hunt.

The design for the Olympic medals feature parts of a West Coast aboriginal design of an orca on an undulating surface of circular medal. The design for the Olympic medals feature parts of a West Coast aboriginal design of an orca on an undulating surface of circular medal. (VANOC)”The athletes may be training but they’re always somehow connected to their community, to their teammates, or to their country. The orca is a creature that has wonderful capabilities but can’t really survive without its pod,” she said.

“My design for the Paralympic medal — a raven on a totem rising — is close to my heart and in honour of my uncle who is a paraplegic. The raven is a creature that is all things and I think Paralympic athletes have that in them,” she said.

“They’re sometimes given challenges and they rise above them and the raven does the same. I think the creativity of the raven gives us hope — to accept when things don’t work out and really rejoice when they do,” said Hunt.
Undulating surfaces

Also for the first time, the medals are not flat. Instead, they have an undulating surface intended to represent the West Coast landscape of mountains and waves and drifting snow.

The Paralympic medal will feature parts of a larger West Coast aboriginal image of the raven, imprinted on squared-circle of undulating metal. The Paralympic medal will feature parts of a larger West Coast aboriginal image of the raven, imprinted on squared-circle of undulating metal. (VANOC)Canadian industrial designer and architect Omer Arbel, also of Vancouver, created the innovative undulating design of the medals, which were struck nine times each to achieve the distinctive look as part of a 30-step medal fabrication process.

The Olympic medals are circular in shape, while the Paralympic medals are a superellipse, or squared circle, drawn from traditional West Coast native designs. At more than 500 grams each, the medals are amongst the heaviest in Olympic and Paralympic history.

“I’ve always thought of the Olympic Games as a catalyst for great contemporary design. It’s exciting to have arrived at a piece of work that challenges people’s expectations of what a medal can be,” said Arbel.

Read the rest at CBC.ca/News