Gold Medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi Will Contain Meteorite Fragments

KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV - AFP The stellar performances of seven Olympians will be honored accordingly in Sochi next year. As reported by the Russian international

KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV - AFP

The stellar performances of seven Olympians will be honored accordingly in Sochi next year. As reported by the Russian international news agency RIA Novosti, next year's winter games will feature gold medals with “embedded meteorite fragments” from the Chelyabinsk meteor strike that hit southern Russia in February earlier this year.

It won't be the first time an Olympics will feature altered medals. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing embedded their medals with jade, a symbol that is "unmistakably associated with China." Vancouver followed suit when it decided to incorporate recycled materials in their medals in an attempt to make the 2010 Winter Olympics "the greenest games ever." The practice dates to 1994, when Norway embedded sparagmite into its medals.