2010 Olympic Medals Made From Old Electronics
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: olympic, medals, electronics, circuit, boards | Themes: Digital Entertainment, Business
It's just a few months to the 2010 Olympics take place in Vancouver and it looks like there's going to be a wonderfully geeky touch to the event this year.
Living in a country where it only snows every few years, the Winter Olympics means very little to me. What I know about the Winter Olympics would fit on a postage stamp. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I genuinely didn't know there was such a thing as a 'Winter Olympics' until I saw Cool Runnings. Even now I think of them as the filler Olympics that are just there to help pass the time between one Summer Olympics and the next. That said, the medals for next year's Olympic Games have changed my mind completely, because they're made of old circuit boards. Oh yes, the Winter Olympics are officially way cooler than the Summer Olympics.
Consistent with the sustainability philosophy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Vancouver 2010 has announced that the medals will contain recycled metal recovered from end-of-life electronics. Each medal will also feature work by Canadian artists Corrine Hunt and Omer Arbel, and are laser-etched with a unique design meaning no two medals are the same.
The wave design of the medal is said to represent the 'ocean waves, drifting snow and mountainous landscape found in the Games region and throughout Canada.' Translation? 'Oooh, shiny…"
-
Previous News Article
Mailman Steals 2,200 Games From... -
Next News Article
These Are the Top 10 Most Fuel...
From what I heard, if you put them together, you can see watermark of some birds.
Very unique looking medals. I can't figure out if I like the wave style or not.
Can you imagine how many gold plated connectors went into making all those gold medals? Jesus.
I have no idea where they would get the silver and bronze from though...
now that is cool recycling.
wow i love this new design. very creative.
"...but I genuinely didn't know there was such a thing as a 'Winter Olympics' until I saw Cool Runnings." Who is this person? That's either a lie or she has absolutely no sense of embarrassment at being so ill-informed. Unbelievable.
Awesome.
Helping the environment, good news for the planet.
Very nice medals by the way.
I am sure it costs more to use recycle material than raw material.
Can you imagine how many gold plated connectors went into making all those gold medals? Jesus.I have no idea where they would get the silver and bronze from though...
sounds more like aluminum and copper to me
I love them! Very artistic with a touch of tech
this is going down as one of my journal entries for my science and technology class
I think it is insulting to award an athlete who trains most of their life to be the best at their sport with a piece of garbage.
It says the Olympic committee are too cheap to award medals made of pure gold, pure silver and bronze.
"...but I genuinely didn't know there was such a thing as a 'Winter Olympics' until I saw Cool Runnings." Who is this person? That's either a lie or she has absolutely no sense of embarrassment at being so ill-informed. Unbelievable.
I'm not embarrassed to admit it. Ireland has been competing in the Summer Olympics since 1924 but we didn't start competing in the Winter Olympics until 1992.
Besides, we have enough trouble coping with the Summer Olympics. Our record is woeful. We were stripped of our only medal in 2004 (show jumping) because the horse was on drugs.
yeah they had to do this because of the horrid cost of security for the games. NO VANCOUVER OLYMPICS STOP DESTROYING NATIVE LANDS.
Will you get a gold medal if you overclock the silver medal?
@ superprelude: these medals undoubtedly cost less when one considers more than hard cash. our resources are limited and daily dwindling, the human cost of mining precious metals is incalculable, the refinement process from raw ore to 'shiny' is environmentally harsh and costly. no I'm not a tree hugger, I dont recycle, and I drive a 3/4 ton gas guzzling van; but I like the statement being made here by the Olympic Games.
I think it is insulting to award an athlete who trains most of their life to be the best at their sport with a piece of garbage.It says the Olympic committee are too cheap to award medals made of pure gold, pure silver and bronze.
Are you for real? You actually believe past medals were solid bronze/silver/gold? I suggest you crawl back under your very sheltering rock.
From what I heard, if you put them together, you can see watermark of some birds.
Each medal has a piece of one of two art pieces (presumably by the medal designers?) on them. So, yes if you combined them just right they'd make two larger pictures.... I haven't seen the larger pictures though.
I'd be interested it how the recycled and made these metals. i just like to know how things are made, I blame the woolly mammoths.
That's ok. Living in Canada I feel (almost) the same way about the summer Olympics and we even win a handful of medals at those.
Can you imagine how many gold plated connectors went into making all those gold medals? Jesus.I have no idea where they would get the silver and bronze from though...
Actually, because of the RoHS directive, the finish on many circuit boards is immersion gold over nickel or immersion silver over nickel. And copper is used heavily for the traces in the layers, especially aerospace or military boards.
@gpj
Yes I am for real. And I suggest you try using Google to learn the specifications for the content of an Olympic medal. It is my opinion athletes who train to be the best in the world should be awarded with medals made of pure gold and pure silver and the highest quality bronze.
On a side note...the rock sheltering the community I live in has about dozen medal awarded Olympians. They're very nice people. At community events they like to display their medals and allow people to touch their medals so they can get a close look at them.
Eh, I can appreciate them wanting to be creative, but it really just looks like someone beat the medals with a hammer. I think a flat design would have been nicer.
@ zpyrd:
Pure gold and silver are rather soft. They would be too soft to hold form reliably, and would deform to even rather gentle scratches. This is not really a thing to make a legacy of - alloys are better. As an aside, where do you think these "pure" elements come from? What is the difference if the end result is a pure element anyway? Who cares if it came from some silly old socket? Gold is Au is gold.
They should have 4th place... made of tin.
Pure PR crap. Most metals are recycled and have been for the last few thousand years. There are some studies that suggest some 90+% of gold ever extracted are still in circulation because it cost a lot more to mine than to recycle.
The aluminum coke can is made from recycled material; your car is made from recycled steel; your computer parts will be melted down in China or somewhere to extract the metals.
Canada is just trying to take the lead in "being environmentally friendly". Canadian actually uses more electricity per person than American because they refuse to cut back on driving and heating their oversized house.
Pei-chen
Have you ever been to Canada buddy. It is beautiful and pristine. It's also big and it has extreme temperatures (+45C/+113F in the the summer and -50C/-58F in the winter). So of course we spent more on electricity and gas. We also spend more money are road maintenance and car maintenance. I have been recycling since the late 1980's. Of course, since the majority of Americans are completely ignorant of Canada and the rest of the world for that matter, I found myself irritated yet completely unsurprised by your comments. I travel throughout North America several times a month, perhaps you should get out more.
r0x0r - Very clever, your overclocking had me in stitches. LOL
is the first image that of the bottom side of the medal while the second image is of the top side? the medal looks weird. maybe that's because i'm used to seeing the traditional coin shapes. The Winter Olympics are not that well-publicized compare to the Summer Games. i can only recall Lake Placid and Sarajevo. Nothing else comes to mind.
Loving the new design, almost looks like I can peel back the gold and get at some delicious chocolate.
Our record is woeful. We were stripped of our only medal in 2004 (show jumping) because the horse was on drugs.