Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals revealed
The gold, silver and bronze that Canadian road, XCO and BMX athletes will be vying for at the 2020 Olympic Games are made from recycled consumer electronics
On July 24th, a year before the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the organizing committee revealed the medals that will be awarded at the Games next summer. Canadian road, mountain bike and BMX athletes will be looking to better the two bronze medals Canada won at the 2016 Rio Olympics in cycling.
The winning medal designs were selected after a nationwide competition in Japan open to both professional designers and design students. A selection panel whittled down more than 400 entries before settling on the ideas presented by Junichi Kawanishi, director of the Japan Sign Design Association and the Osaka Design Society.
The intricate designs, which will adorn all 5,000 medals, reflect patterns of light in order to symbolize the energy of the athletes and those who support them. The designs also represent how athletes strive for victory on a daily basis, as well as the Olympic themes of diversity and friendship.
“It is a great honour that my design was selected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic medal,” Kawanishi said. “I never dreamed that the design I submitted only as a memorial to this lifetime event would actually be selected. With their shining rings, I hope the medals will be seen as paying tribute to the athletes’ efforts, reflecting their glory, and symbolizing friendship.”
The Tokyo 2020 gold medal
The Tokyo 2020 silver medal
The Tokyo 2020 bronze medal
As part of an initiative to make these games more environmentally friendly and sustainable, the organizers established the Tokyo 2020 Medal Project. This recycling initiative has ensured that each medal has been moulded entirely from metal extracted from recycled consumer electronics over the past two years.
With more than 90 per cent of Japan’s local authorities participating, a total of 78,985 tons of discarded devices were collected, a haul which included approximately 6.21 million used mobile phones, along with digital cameras, handheld games and laptops, all of which were then classified, dismantled and melted down.
In 2016, the women’s team pursuit squad of Jasmin Glaesser, Kirsti Lay, Georgia Simmerling, Allison Beveridge and Laura Brown took home bronze against New Zealand on the boards of Rio. In mountain biking, Catharine Pendrel edged out Emily Batty for the bronze medal in the XCO race.
