Rio Tinto, the mining company responsible for the production of the precious metals for the London 2012 Games, will hand over the final Olympic and Paralympic medals to LOCOG for secure storage in the vaults at the Tower of London during the Games.
The gold, silver and bronze medals which will be awarded to the athletes at Games-times, will be securely locked away in the famous vaults at the Tower of London and will remain there until they are needed for the Victory Ceremonies. In total, 4,700 medals have been produced and will be awarded in 805 Victory Ceremonies that will take place in over 30 London 2012 venues across the UK.
A ceremonial event will take place tonight at the Tower at which the final medals will arrive and be taken down to the vaults by Rio Tinto Chairman, Jan du Plessis, and LOCOG Chair, Seb Coe. The arrival of the medals will be announced by a fanfare by the trumpeters of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Collingwood and attended by The Tower’s famous Yeoman Warders and 150 Get Set network school children from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Rio Tinto has provided eight tonnes of gold, silver and copper from its Kennecott Utah Copper mine in Salt Lake City, USA and the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia to make the medals. These were produced by the Royal Mint in South Wales.
The designer of the Olympic Games medals, British artist, David Watkins and the designer of the Paralympic Games medals Lin Cheung, a practising Jewellery artist and senior lecturer in Jewellery Design at Central Saint Martin’s College of Arts and Design, London will also be attending the event.
The Olympic medals’ circular form is a metaphor for the world. The front of the medal always depicts the same imagery at the summer Games - the Greek Goddess of Victory, Nike, stepping out of the depiction of the Parthenon to arrive in the Host City.
The front of the Paralympic medal represents ‘Spirit in motion’. The image struck into the obverse surface of the Paralympic medal is an imagined close-up section of an outstretched wing of Goddess of Victory, Nike. This image represents forward flight, power and lightness - a natural metaphor for the spirit of the Paralympic Games.
LOCOG Chair, Seb Coe said: ‘For an athlete, winning an Olympic or Paralympic medal represents the conclusion of thousands of hours of training and reaching the highest level in sport. The Victory Ceremonies then provide the moment they can truly celebrate their success. It’s great that the London 2012 medals will be kept safe and secure at the Tower of London until then.’
Rio Tinto Chairman, Jan du Plessis said: ‘Metals from our mines in the mountains of Utah and the deserts of Mongolia have now been transformed into these beautiful gleaming medals. All 65,000 Rio Tinto employees around the world are immensely proud to be playing a small part in the excitement of London 2012.’
Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson said: ‘To the athletes competing to win these medals they are as precious as the Crown Jewels, so it is fitting that they should be stored for safe keeping in the same iconic location.’
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: ‘For centuries the Tower of London has protected some of this country's greatest treasures so there can be no better sanctuary for the 2012 medals - the most precious possession any athlete could hope to possess - than at this world famous iconic landmark.’
The first medals to be awarded will be on the 28 July for the Shooting event. During a Victory Ceremony the athletes who came first, second and third stand on a podium, with the winner in the middle. Their names are called out and the medals and are given to them by an official: gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third.
For more information visit: www.london2012.com
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