Medals of Beijing Olympic Games unveiled (photos attached)

On the occasion of the 500 day countdown to the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) unveiled the Games' medals.

BOCOG executive vice-president and chairman of the evaluation committee Jiang Xiaoyu attended the unveiling ceremony and delivered a speech at the Museum of the capital on Tuesday.

The medals are designed with inspiration from "bi", China ancient jade piece inscribed with dragon motif. The medals, gold and jade, a symbol of nobility and virtue and are embodiment of traditional Chinese values of ethics and honour.

The medals are 70mm in diameter and 6 mm thick. On their obverse side, the medals adopt the standard prescribed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) - a drawing that represents the winged goddess of victory Nike and Panathinaikos Arena, while on their backs, medals are inlaid with jade The emblem of the Beijing Games engraved in the metal central.

Noble and elegant, the medals are a mixture of traditional Chinese culture and Olympism. It gives the winners of the Games a great honor and acclamation as recognition of their achievement.

The IOC has strict stipulation on the Olympic medals equipment, identification, weight, size and design. The medals for the champion and vice-are pure silver, and the medal champion must be coated with gold weighing not less than six grams each. For the first time jade is used for Olympic medals. The design not only meets the IOC requirements, but also expresses praise and honor that the Chinese people cherish for the Olympic spirit and Olympic athletes.

In his speech, Jiang Xiaoyu said the Beijing 2008 Games medals will be an important part of the Olympic legacy for China. The design of medals is the result of hard work and enthusiasm of many people. The medals, he said, is a strong Chinese style and elegant art, and are a harmonious combination of Chinese culture with the Olympism, making them a vehicle to spread the Olympic spirit and concepts Games Beijing, as well as to showcase Chinese culture and arts, and high rates of design and technology.

Athlete Jones stripped of Olympic medals

The International Olympic Committee today formally stripped the USA athlete Marion Jones of the five medals she won the Sydney Games in 2000 and his name erased from the record books.
It has also been excluded from next year in Beijing games, and faces a lifetime ban on all future Olympics. Jones - who in October admitted to using steroids before, she won three gold medals and two bronze medals in Sydney - had already presented the medals prior to the announcement made today by the IOC President, Jacques Rogge.

Last month, the International Association of Athletics Federations cleared all its results dating back to September 2000, but it belongs to the IOC to formally exclude her and erase her Olympic medals. Jones won the gold medal at 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x400 meters relay in Sydney, bronze in long jump and the 4x100 metres relay.

It was the first woman in track and field athlete to win five medals at the Olympics one. In addition to these medals, the IOC also disqualified Jones for his seventh placed finish in the long jump at Athens Olympics 2004. The movement could affect the state medal of more than three dozen other athletes.

However, the IOC postponed a decision on how the medals should be redistributed, including the desirability of soundtrack U.S. relay teammates of their gold medals and the possibility of improving the Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou to gold at 100 meters. Thanou was subsequently banned for two years for failing to attend drug testing before the Athens Games.

After years of denial, Jones has finally admitted taking steroids in a tearful confession in a courtroom in New York in October. "It is with a lot of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I betrayed your trust," she said. "I was dishonest, and you have the right to be angry against me. I let my family I have left my country down, and I myself I did."

Jones became the fourth American athlete in Olympic history to have a medal taken by the IOC, and the third to take the penalty imposed for a doping offence.

Jerome Young was stripped of his 1600 meters relay gold at Sydney for an earlier doping violation, the swimmer Rick DeMont lost his 400 metre freestyle gold at the 1972 Munich games after testing positive for a banned substance in his medication against asthma, and Jim Thorpe was stripped of his decathlon and pentathlon gold medals in 1912 when it was revealed he earned $ 25 per week to play minor league baseball.

The IOC reinstated Thorpe in 1982, his return medals to his children the following year.

IOC officials said they needed more details of the ongoing investigation into steroids in the USA to determine if other Olympic athletes were linked to the scandal.

Jones USA faces a prison sentence of between three and six months after a federal investigation into a ring of steroid distribution to the Balco sports nutrition centre in California. She will be sentenced on January 11.

olympic medallists or gold medalist country

More Information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_Olympic_gold_medalists