Curator & Collector

2010 Winter Olympics Medal co-designed by Corrine Hunt

As mentioned in the preceding post, I and several thousand other people lined up recently to see and touch the gold, silver, and bronze medals for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I’m not particularly a sports person, but partly because these medals were reputed to be so British Columbian, I spend eight and a half hours in line to see them. The experience was not disappointing, and the wait was worthwhile.

The medals were co-designed by First Nations artist Corrine Hunt,* and were produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. The undulating design of the medals was meant to recall the British Columbia landscape of waves and snow. When I first saw a picture of the medals some months ago, I remember not being ready; “that’s not how a medal looks!” I thought. The design grew on me over the next while, particularly when I saw pictures of the Beijing Olympic medals, which are also atypical. At that point, I thought it appropriate that each country could feel free to give the Olympic medals a local flavour. When I saw the 2010 medals in person, though, I was converted completely. No picture can really do them justice. They not only look beautiful, they feel beautiful. Their textures are smooth, they are weighty, and they are very appealing to the eyes, with their undulating rhythms and surface designs of the Orca, depicted in modern, yet traditional lines of the First Nations of this part of the world. In short, the medals are definitely “West Coast.”

The reverse of the silver medal is shown below:

Reverse of silver medal from the 2010 Winter Olympics

I particularly liked the so-called bronze medal, which actually uses copper, a favored metal of many First Nations artists today. When I think of the bronze medals, I think of the two athletes who most inspired me during these Olympics: Joannie Rochette, who lost her mother two days before her two excellent skates, and Clara Hughes, the only Olympian to have won multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. It is a happy circumstance that sees such wonderful athletes receiving such wonderful medals in their own home country of Canada, and although Canada finished first in Gold, it was these two bronzes that inspired me most.

Obverse of 2010 Winter Olympics “bronze” (copper) medal

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*Ms. Hunt’s design in its entirety, the design that was the basis for the medals, may be seen in the background of the picture of her in the previous post.