The Olympic and Paralympic medals for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games have been revealed in St. Petersburg during the 11th SportAccord Annual International Sports Convention.

This unveiling ceremony is traditionally held the year before the Games.  Guests of honour in St Petersberg included IOC Coordination Commission Chairman and former ski-racing legend Jean-Claude Killy, CEO of the IPC Xavier Gonzalez and Dmitry Chernyschenko, President and CEO of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee.

The unique new Sochi medals feature the Sochi 2014 “Patchwork Quilt” – a mosaic of national designs from the various cultures and ethnicities of the Russian Federation. They also depict Sochi’s landscape with rays of sunshine reflecting through the snowy mountain tops and onto the sandy beaches of the Black Sea coast. They are each made of metal and polycarbonate.  Around 1300 medals will be produced – a record number, as the Sochi Games is planning more disciplines than any previous Winter Olympics.

There will be twelve new medal events in Sochi, including mens’ and ladies’ snowboard and ski slopestyle; ski halfpipe; snowboard parallel special slalom; ladies ski jumping; a figure skating team event; a luge relay; and a biathlon mixed relay.