Olympic athletes who win the gold at Sochi on February 15th are in for a
special treat -- a medal containing meteorite pieces from the
Chelyabinsk meteor, which streamed across the Russian sky on February
15, 2013. The meteor is believed to have been the largest natural object
to enter the atmosphere and ultimately fragment and crash into the
Earth as meteorites since the 1908 Tunguska event struck Siberia. Gold
medal winners on February 15th will get the regular gold medals,
plus the 10 athletes will be awarded special commemorative medals with a
piece of meteorite embedded in their centers. The Chelyabinsk meteor
produced chondrite meteorites that contain 10% iron. The medals holding
the meteorite fragment have been crafted of gold and silver.
Fifty
of the medals have been made, with the other 40 going to private
collections. According to Chelyabinsk Region Culture Minister Aleksey
Betekhtin, "
We will hand out our medals to all the athletes who will
win gold on that day [February 15], because both the meteorite strike
and the Olympic Games are global events."
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