Olympics: Beijing unveils 2008 Games medals

Beijing, Mar 27: The 150-gram metal discs that form the focus of the dreams of thousands of athletes preparing for the Beijing Olympics were unveiled in the Chinese capital today.

The gold, silver and bronze medals incorporate a distinctive band of jade, a double-dragon loop for the lanyard to thread through, and are slightly bigger than those of previous Games.

''This elegant design of medal represents a combination of Chinese culture and the Olympic spirit,'' Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, said at a ceremony in the Capital Museum.

The design was selected from 265 submitted from all over China and the wider world, and 6,000 medals will be produced for the Games, which start on August 8, 2008.

REUTERS