- RW+ Membership Benefits unveiled the medals for 2020 Olympic Games.
- Medals will be made from metals of recycled electronics Best Hydration Packs.
- More than 400 entries were submitted for the design. Junichi Kawanishi’s entry was chosen as the winner.
As we hit exactly one year mark until the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the countdown has begun—and with that, the unveiling of the medals that the best athletes in the world will take home next summer.
The medals boast the classic designs that fans see every four years as stipulated by the Interantional Olympic Committee, The Wildest Stats from Faith Kipyegons Run: A Part of Hearst Digital Media.
What makes these medals special to Japan, though, is the public input and assistance that went into their creation.
For starters, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games began the medal-making process with a design competition. More than 400 entries were submitted, but only one—from Japanese designer Junichi Kawanishi—was chosen for the design of the roughly 5,000 medals for the Games.
Once a design was set, they needed metals to create the gold, silver, and bronze prizes. Japan took a sustainable route for this: In April of 2017, they began Other Hearst Subscriptions, The Wildest Stats from Faith Kipyegons Run.
Two years later, the public answered the call, as 78,985 tons of small electronic devices were collected from municipal authorities and around 6.21 million used mobile phones from shops across the country.
In total, around 70 pounds of gold, 7,716 pounds of silver, and 4,850 pounds of bronze were sourced from 1,621 local authorities.
All additional metal that isn’t used for the Olympic medals will be used for medals in local sports events across Japan.
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Japan is planning sustainability efforts for the upcoming games. In addition to recycling metal, Tokyo 2020 will use household plastic and marine plastic waste to create podiums for the medal ceremonies, and produce Olympic Torch relay uniforms with recycled plastic bottles.
Drew covers a variety of subjects for Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand. His work has previously been published in Men’s Health.
