Meteor-encrusted medals up for grabs at Sochi 2014

Sochi Olympic champions that happen to win their medals on February 15, 2014 — one year after the meteor crashed in the Urals — will receive special medals inlaid with tiny pieces of the celestial object.

A select few athletes lucky enough to win gold medals on a specific date at the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics will be awarded an extra set of medals with bits of the meteor embedded in them; this is being done for the first anniversary of the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteor, the Ministry of Culture of the Chelyabinsk Region reported.

The medals will be crafted at an arms factory in the Urals, the report indicated, citing the region’s Minister of Culture Alexei Betekhtin. Apparently, the medals, which have yet to be designed, will be awarded to athletes on February 15, 2014, marking exactly one year since the meteor crash. “We will award our medals to all athletes who win gold medals on that day, because the meteor, just like the Olympic Games, is an event of global significance,” Betekhtin said.

According to a spokesperson for the regional Ministry of Culture, the meteor-inlaid medals will be awarded in addition to the regular set of Olympic prizes. The medals will most likely be gold-plated.

The meteor, dubbed “Chelyabinsk,” crashed in Chelyabinsk Region on February 15, 2013, causing a powerful shock wave that damaged buildings and smashed windows in Chelyabinsk, and injured over 1,600 people.

First published in Russian in RIA Novosti.

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