2008 Medals

On January 11, 2006, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) launched an open call for the design of the medals for the Beijing Olympic Games and directed 11 professional organizations, including the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBC), the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), and the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University (AFA), to take part in the design of the medals. The call for proposals was supported by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) Diversified Minerals and BHP Billiton, the medal sponsor. After nearly three months of solicitation, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games received 265 entries from 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as the United States, Australia, Russia, Germany and other countries. Subsequently, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games invited domestic experts and scholars in the fields of art, sculpture, minting, etc. to conduct preliminary and reevaluation of the 179 valid entries, and repeatedly organized the relevant units to revise and improve the medal program. 2007 January 11 and February 8, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee respectively adopted the Beijing Olympic Games medal program. 2007 March 27 afternoon, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games medal conference was held in the Capital Museum of China. On the afternoon of March 27, 2007, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games medals conference was held in the Capital Museum, the conference announced the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games medals design program, the medals fully reflected the characteristics of the Beijing Olympic Games medals and the link with the overall concept of the Beijing Olympic Games.

March 27, 2007, the Beijing Olympic Games (Beijing Olympic Games news, Beijing Olympic Games said it) countdown to 500 days, modern and rustic Beijing Capital Museum, when the three inlaid with jade Olympic medals displayed in front of the crowd, the Beijing Olympic Games was born again to let all the people marvel at the masterpiece -- "standing with wings", "standing with wings", "standing with wings", "standing with wings", "standing with wings", "standing with wings", "standing with wings", "standing with wings", "standing with wings" and "standing with wings". -The Greek Goddess of Victory standing on wings and the Greek Panathinaiko Arena", "Ancient Chinese Jade Bi in the shape of a dragon pattern", "Chinese Seal full of dynamic energy", "Chinese Seal in the shape of a dragon pattern" and "Chinese Seal in the shape of a dragon pattern". "When all these elements are perfectly combined in one medal, you can only describe this amazing design as an exquisite "work of art".

The Beijing Olympic medals have a strong Chinese character and a noble and elegant artistic style, harmoniously combining Chinese culture with the Olympic spirit. The concept of "Jade is better than Virtue" fully expresses the high respect and salute to the winners of the Olympic Games. The creative use of jade on the Olympic medals once again perfectly expresses the unique interpretation of oriental wisdom on the Olympic spirit.

The medals are an important part of the Olympic image landscape and competition organization. From the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 to the present, the design of medals has undergone a series of changes. The organizing committees of the Olympic Games have tried to reflect the cultural characteristics of the host city, country and nation in the design of the medals.

On the afternoon of April 6, 1896, a crucial day in the history of the modern Olympics, American James Connolly stood on the triple jump course at the Panathinaiko Arena in Athens, Greece. After two deep breaths, Connolly began his run and jumped - 13.71 meters - and modern Olympic history gave birth to its first champion. From that moment on, medals have continued as an integral element of sports culture in Olympic history.

At those Olympics, only the 1st and 2nd place winners received medals, with a silver medal for the winner and a bronze for the runner-up. Also awarded to the winner was an olive branch crown and the runner-up was a laurel branch crown. The medals for these Olympics are 50 millimeters in diameter.

Beginning with the 1928 Amsterdam Games, the front of the Olympic medals featured the ancient Roman Colosseum in the background, with the Greek mythological goddess of victory sitting in the center holding a wreath of flowers, designed by the Italian artist Giuseppe Cascioli. Cascioli's design has been used on the front of the medals since 1972, with the organizing committee adding its own design to the back.

Organizing committees of all the Olympic Games have tried to make the backs of the medals a cultural statement, with the backs of the medals for the 2000 Sydney Games consisting of the five rings of the Olympic symbols, the burning Olympic torch, and Sydney's most iconic building, the Opera House. Athens Olympic Games medals in the simplicity of the Greeks reflected the deep feelings of the Olympic movement - symbolizing the victory of the olive branch deformed into the Athens Olympic Games emblem, rugged through the beauty of the art of ancient Greek characters and the burning flame.

After the IOC unified the design of the front of the medals in 2004, the space left for the organizing committee to play was limited to the back of the medals, and how will the design of the medals for the Beijing Olympics break through in this square inch? In the "China Print", "Fuwa (Fuwa news, Fuwa said it)" moved the world again and again, the medals of the Beijing Olympic Games will give the Olympic movement to write what kind of colorful music? What kind of graphics or design can perfectly show China's ancient civilization in a square inch?

The design of the medals for the Beijing Olympics began in earnest a year after the Athens Games. The question on everyone's mind was, what kind of concept and design would the medals of the Beijing Olympics present to the world in the limited space? The appearance of a jade pendant changed the history of Olympic medals!

On April 13, 2006, 179 medal designs were put in front of the judges of the Medal Review Committee - valid works collected by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games in the past three months. Because of the professionalism of the medal design, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee invited professional design institutions to participate in the collection process, and the medal jury also gathered domestic art, sculpture, minting and other fields with outstanding achievements of the people, scholars.

During the preliminary evaluation, one piece of work attracted everyone's attention. It was a medal with a jade inlay in the center. Before that, no one had thought that a material other than metal would appear in the design of the medal. Cao Chunsheng, honorary president of the Chinese Sculpture Society, recalled that the proposal caught everyone's eye and drew the judges' attention.

The design of "Gold and Jade" originated in a tin hut of less than 20 square meters at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), which was bustling with activity just after the Spring Festival of 2006 - the CAFA design team, which had received an invitation to design the medals for the Beijing Olympics, began its work here. The design team of the Central Academy of Fine Arts received an invitation to design the medals for the Beijing Olympic Games and started to work here. It was a creative team of 15 members, most of whom were still in school. Liu Yang, who has now graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, was one of them. Liu Yang recalls that the team was divided into four groups, and in less than a month, the group came up with more than 100 designs.

"At that time, students often work until 2 or 3 o'clock in the middle of the night to go back to the dormitory, for which we were also managed to dormitory aunts several times." Liu Yang said that the working condition of the group was almost crazy at that time.

They searched for all kinds of traditional Chinese patterns, hoping to find ideas. Over the course of a month or so, the more than 100 designs that were initially proposed were repeatedly cut down and merged, and the design team went from four groups to two, and eventually to one, with the more than 100 proposals eventually becoming 34.

Initially, the Central Academy of Fine Arts design team also did not think of adding the material of jade to the medal design. "But we always thought that jade could best express the ideals of Chinese character, etiquette and virtue." Initially, the design team decided to incorporate Chinese jade culture into the medals, but in the initial design, they only took the shape of jade - a metal jade jade jade jade. However, no matter how carefully crafted, metal is metal, and it is impossible to fully express the texture of jade.

A bold idea came to the design team's mind: why not just use a combination of jade and metal to make the medal? Thus, a medal was born with a jade inlaid in the center of the back, engraved with the Beijing Olympic Games emblem "China Seal" in the center of the jade, according to the design requirements set forth by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.

In the preliminary evaluation of the 10 designs selected, the "gold and jade" design has received the most attention. "This is not to say that the other designs are bad." Cao Chunsheng believes that, in addition to the "gold and jade" design, the National Stadium "Bird's Nest" as the back of the design is also very eye-catching - "This venue is the most famous Olympic stadium in the history of the Olympic Games. This venue is one of the most characteristic of the Olympic stadiums, reflecting the contemporary harmony between man and nature, reflecting the high-tech level of architectural development, and it is impressive to use it as the back pattern of the medal."

Despite the characteristics of other works, but in the end it was no match for the "gold inlaid jade" to bring the shock of the jury - June 7, 2006, the medal jury of the initial evaluation of the 10 works selected for re-evaluation, and on June 30, 2006, to the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee, Beijing, to the Beijing Olympic Games. On June 30, 2006, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee Executive Committee meeting submitted to the final selection of the three programs. July 3, Liu Yang graduation day, he received the best graduation gift - the Beijing Olympic Games medals to modify the direction of the final determination of the "jade pendant" program.

In the original design, jade was placed in the center of the medal, used to engrave the Beijing Olympic Games emblem. However, due to the special material and color of jade, the emblem pattern was weakened and could not even be seen. In response to this problem, the jury organized the design team to make modifications. In the end, the design team found inspiration in the shape of the dragon patterned jade jade jade bi, which they adopted as the shape of a jade pendant. They used the jade pendant to set the jade ring on top of the medal, and changed the center part of the circle to metal, so that the medal became a "jade pendant" wrapped in metal, and the "China Seal" engraved on the center of the circle appeared to be glittering.

In order to ensure that the medal gold, silver, copper recognition at the same time, highlighting the "jade" characteristics, so that "gold", "jade" material to achieve the perfect combination of visual, medal The team of modification and improvement of the proportion of jade in the face of the medal has been adjusted many times, try to finally increase the width of the metal edge of the back of the medal from 3.5 millimeters to 6 millimeters, so as to highlight the metal texture of the medal, increase the metal identification of the medal. 2008, in the metal edge around the jade pendant will be engraved with the name of the winning sports.

In terms of color scheme, the gold, silver and bronze medals are matched with white jade, greenish-white jade and green jade respectively. The quality of the jade was taken into account, while also choosing a reasonable match with the color of the medals. In the process of design refinement, experts and design team also removed the original engraving on the jade "cloud pattern" and "small dots" design, so that the whole medal looks more pure, translucent.

Olympic medal pattern although through evolution, change, but the medal material has never been so breakthrough, a piece of jade will break the century-old Olympic medal tradition! Chinese experts as the main medal jury agreed with this breakthrough, the International Olympic Committee? Can they accept such a bold design? Is this breakthrough simply a break with formal stereotypes, or is it a perfect interpretation of the Olympic spirit with the great depth of Chinese civilization?

While the medals have undergone changes in pattern design, what has remained the same is the material of the Olympic medals. So far, people have not seen any material other than metal attached to the Olympic medals.

The use of jade was unanimously recognized by the judges. The beauty of jade, out of nature, is the refraction of penetration from the inside out, soft and subtle, with endless charm. Jade's appearance is gentle and rounded, but its essence is strong and rigid, which coincides with the moral pursuit of a gentleman among people. The moral concept of "a gentleman is more virtuous than jade" compares the color, texture and shape of jade to the virtues of human character, benevolence, wisdom and righteousness, so the doctrine of jade having five virtues, nine virtues and eleven virtues came into being, and even "a gentleman has no reason not to go to the body of jade". In fact, as early as before the Spring and Autumn Period, jade appeared in the ritual activities of our ancestors as a very important ceremonial weapon. Jade culture has continued throughout the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

Jin Shangyi, a renowned artist and member of the medal's judging committee, commented that the combination of gold and jade is unique and is an ingenious combination of Chinese and Western cultures. Mr. Qian Shaowu, a famous sculpture artist, was full of praise when he talked about this work: "Pei Yu has never been seen in the history of Olympic Games medal design, gold is flamboyant, jade is subtle, and it matches very well together."

Chairman of the Jury and Executive Vice Chairman of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, Mr. Jiang Xiaoyu, called the design a perfect and harmonious combination of Chinese culture and the Olympic spirit, which integrates the worship of jade and the concept of comparing virtue with jade in the tradition of China's 5,000 years of civilization and has found the best way to express the Chinese culture. The resilience of jade and its connotations of virtues such as virtue, benevolence, wisdom and righteousness express the Chinese people's respect for the Olympic Movement and their admiration and salute for the athletes' spirit of striving for excellence.

Professor Wang Yipong of the Central Academy of Fine Arts still remembers how apprehensive he was when the design was first presented to the IOC for consideration. Jade culture has a long history in China, and would the IOC recognize the concept? Most importantly, would the IOC accept the historic breakthrough in medal materials?

Wang Ning, then head of the Beijing Organizing Committee's Cultural Activities Department, recalled that the IOC accepted this bold breakthrough when the Beijing Organizing Committee's presentation staff elaborated on the cultural concept of jade! They thought, "This is a very good work of art." At the same time, they believed that athletes from all over the world would be delighted to learn about the symbolism of jade, which, in the Chinese mind, is only worthy of a gentleman of high moral character. This design will be the most oriental interpretation of the Olympic spirit and the highest compliment to the athletes!

The combination of jade and metal has been recognized by the IOC, yet there are still many technical hurdles to overcome to finally realize this epoch-making breakthrough. The IOC set a condition for the Beijing Organizing Committee - "We can't approve your design until we have final confirmation that this medal has a very low rate of jade damage!"

Athletes tend to be unusually exuberant after winning on the field of play, and under the dominance of such emotions they may throw the medals in their hands into the air, or even into the audience, thus causing damage to the medals. Earlier this year, a videotape allayed the IOC's concerns about the material of the medals.

While accepting the jade concept, the IOC also expressed some concerns about the production process and technology. After all, there were many technical challenges to overcome in combining metal and jade.

Many of you may remember that at last year's Asian Games badminton tournament, Chinese star Zhang Ning nearly threw her medal to the crowd in her excitement after winning the gold. And in the English Premier League, Chelsea's maniacal manager was even more generous in throwing his gold medal to the audience after that team won the Premier League title. You can imagine that if there was no solid technical guarantee, the consequences of throwing a Beijing Olympic medal inlaid with jade would have been "shattered". Even without this extreme scenario, Beijing medals must be impact-resistant in the event of an accidental fall.

In order to improve the impact resistance of the medals, and further improve the structural strength, in order to solve the final molding process of the medals, the medals design modification and improvement of the team on the medals of the metal and jade combination of process technology and safety, such as a number of technical tests. The Central Academy of Fine Arts, in accordance with the requirements of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games to do further refinement of the medal program, China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation from the minting process technology to cooperate.

"When the first drop experiment failed, I froze!

"When the first drop experiment failed, I froze! Modification and improvement of the team in the professional laboratory to simulate the scene, the combination of metal and jade technology and safety of four technical tests - tied with ribbons on the medal were at different angles from 1 meters, 1.5 meters, 1.9 meters, 2 meters to do a free-fall fall experiments, a clear three different structural design of the medal of the different performance

The medals were dropped at different angles from 1 meter, 1.5 meters, 1.9 meters and 2 meters to clarify the different performance of the three different structural designs and adjusted the thickness and internal structure accordingly.

Because of the time constraints, Wang Yipeng hardly slept a wink during the experiment. In order to find a suitable material to fill in the buffer between the metal and jade, he searched the domestic and foreign information, literature, visited the material science experts, jade experts and sculpture experts. During that time, his eyes were almost always jade, and what he dreamed of in his sleep was also jade. "We did 18 programs in one ****, and I didn't sleep for almost two weeks at that time."

The first three experiments failed, but Wang Yipong has found the crux of the problem. Before the fourth experiment, although still nervous, Wang Yipeng had a bottom in mind. Within a few seconds of the medal falling, Wang Yipeng's eyes did not blink. After those seconds, the students waiting in the studio received a call from Mr. Wang - "Call the Olympic Organizing Committee, it passed." Amid the cheers of his students, Wang Yipong burst into tears - "The medals, even if they are stones, should have feelings for us."

In January this year, the International Olympic Committee headquarters received the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee sent the Beijing Olympic medals in kind, which also includes a videotape. In this videotape, the jade-encrusted medals free-fall from two meters in the air -- the camera fixes on the medals falling to the ground, leaving the jade unharmed. The final hurdle to this perfect design has been overcome, and the Chinese designers have succeeded!

The use of jade accomplishes another important contribution of Chinese culture to Olympic history, but there is more to the Chinese elements embedded in an image landscape as complete as the medals. The medals of the Beijing Olympics are a multifaceted display of Chinese culture.

As a complete medal design, the medals of the Beijing Olympics show the flavor of traditional Chinese culture from the use of jade to the design of ribbons, hooks, medal boxes and certificates.

The hook used to hang the medals is another highlight of this outstanding design, the design evolved from the traditional Chinese jade double-dragon bushel pattern Juan, the shape of which resembles a double-dragon gathering, but also like an auspicious cloud floating in the air, so that the entire medal is very Chinese characteristics. The Beijing Olympic medals box is made of traditional Chinese craftsmanship, the overall quadrilateral shape of the wooden lacquer box, heaven and earth lid slightly curved on all sides, a metaphor for heaven and earth in all directions, the meaning of the hexagonal beauty. In the center of the lid, the Beijing Olympic Games emblem is embedded in gold, reflecting gold and red. The Beijing Olympic Games medal ribbon is woven by machine, with exquisite craftsmanship and cloud pattern on the vermilion ground, which is festive and auspicious.

The perfect design of the medals even extends to the certificates. The Beijing Olympics award certificate is made of rice paper, with silk, damask and other traditional Chinese materials used in the bracket, with the Great Wall and auspicious cloud pattern. The design will also become a permanent collector's item for the athletes who participated in the Beijing Olympics.

Fifteen months of painstaking work brought the "golden relationship" between Chinese civilization and the Olympic movement together in a single medal, but in the end it's not clear who came up with the design.

A year later, recalling the design process of the medal, Liu Yang, who has graduated, and a few of his colleagues coincidentally said that it was not clear who and when came up with the idea, perhaps in the process of "our team of four groups eventually merged into a process, which is the collection of wisdom of our entire design team. "

January 11, 2006, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games held a press conference, issued an open call for the invitation to the medal design, the collection of activities in the community to attract the attention of the public, have to write letters, calls to put forward their own suggestions. After nearly three months of collection, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee *** received 265 pieces of works, of which 179 are valid. The applicants came from 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China as well as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, while there were also submissions from the United States, Germany, Australia, Hungary, Indonesia, Russia, Israel, Finland and other countries.

Jiang Xiuyu said the medal design, like all other designs for the Beijing Olympics, is the result of collective wisdom. The Central Academy of Fine Arts creative process, in the evaluation stage of the medal by the "Jade Heart" into "Jade Pei" process, to solve the technical difficulties in the production of medals is also the process. During the process, not only the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts and BHP Billiton made a lot of work. The artists on the jury also devoted all their efforts to perfecting the design of the medal.

"It can be said that without the 179 pieces, there would not have been 10 pieces in the preliminary evaluation, and there would not have been three pieces in the reevaluation, not to mention, of course, this last one." Jiang Xiuoyu said.

On Jan. 11, 2007, the executive committee of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) considered and approved the design of the medals for the Beijing Olympics. Liu Qi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the People's Republic of China, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee and chairman of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, said in an interview with the media that the design of the medals for the Beijing Olympics was an important task, which embodied the goal of the Olympic requirements of "distinctive and high level".

Liu Qi said, the Beijing Olympic Games medals in the traditional metal plate for the first time the creative use of Chinese jade, so that the 2008 Olympic medals not only follow the international practice, but also increase the Chinese characteristics. Jade culture is an important part of Chinese culture. Jade represents the connotation of beauty, respect, love and help, symbolizing Chinese civilization and interpreting the Olympic spirit of unity and friendship. The gold medal with jade not only reflects the respect for the winner, but also is an exquisite handicraft, which is a product of the combination of Chinese and Western cultures, and is recognized by the IOC and will be loved by the athletes.

On February 8, 2007, the actual Beijing Olympic medals were sent to the Executive Committee chaired by IOC President Rogge, and the IOC Executive Committee approved the design of the medals for the Beijing Olympics. In the confirmation letter they sent, they praised: "The Beijing Olympic medals will prove to be a work of art. They are noble, a combination of traditional Chinese culture and the Olympic spirit. We congratulate the Beijing Olympic medal design program!"

An Olympic medal unites an athlete's lifelong dream, and an Olympic medal inlaid with beautiful jade will be the best tribute to the athlete's spirit of continuous struggle and upward mobility. The Olympic spirit and the virtues of toughness, virtue, benevolence, wisdom and righteousness contained in the jade will inspire the athletes to meet the challenges on the field of 2008 with the pure and thorough heart of a gentleman like the jade. The ancient civilization of China will also be written in the history of the Olympic movement.