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Winning a gold medal at the Olympics is cool enough, but how about winning gold at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia on Saturday, February 15, 2014. That day, and that day only, earning a gold medal also means being awarded a piece of a rock that fell from space.
On February 15, 2013 (exactly a year earlier) an asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere over Russia and exploded over Chelyabinsk Oblast Region. Regarded as the most widely-witnessed strike in modern history, the Chelyabinsk meteor was also the largest recorded natural object to have fallen from space since 1908.
The space rock broke into hundreds, if not thousands, of small fragments, which rained down over the area's snow-covered fields. Over the past year, many fragments of the Chelyabinsk meteorite have been recovered, with some of the pieces heading to labs for study, many landing on the collectors' market, others going to museums and a small set being placed aside for a special set of medallions.
10 of those medals were presented to those who placed gold at the Sochi 2014 Olympics on the one year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor fall.
"We will hand out our medals to all the athletes who will win gold on that day [Feb. 15], because both the meteorite strike and the Olympic Games are global events," Alexei Betekhtin, culture minister for the Chelyabinsk region, said in a statement.
In total, 50 of the meteorite-adorned medallions have been minted. In addition to those awarded to the Olympic committees of those nations whose athletes win gold medals Saturday, one is being given to the regional Chelyabinsk museum, another will stay in Sochi and the remainder will be offered to private collections.
The medallions, which were crafted out of gold and silver, feature a design inspired by the footage of the meteor's fall as captured by car-mounted dash cams. The videos from that day quickly went viral, shared across the planet by social media.
The meteorite pieces are affixed in a small indentation at the center of the medals.
The 10 meteorite-embedded awards were bestowed to the gold medal athletes competing in speed skating (men's 1500), short-track speed skating (women's 1000 and men's 1500), cross-country skiing (women's relay), ski jumping (men's K-125), Alpine skiing (women's super giant slalom) and skeleton (men's) events.
This is one of the 50 medallions so minted and issued. It comes in its original presentation case with information certificate card (which is in Russian). These are not just any mass produced Olympic medallion, but one which holds tremendous significance for the host country. This is a truly special Olympic piece of memorabilia, highlighted by its extreme rarity (there are more known Honus Wagner tobacco cards!) and significance of events in the host country and the world.