The medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were unveiled in an extravagant ceremony with exactly one year to go until next year’s Games and designer Junichi Kawanishi is still coming to terms with his sudden fame.
His design was exposed to the world in the Japanese capital with exactly one year to go until the Games, which starts on July 24th and the function was attended by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
The medals feature an unlikely quirk: It will be made using old cell phones and other recycled metals. They are 85mm in diameter which features the Greek goddess of victory Nike in their design along with the Olympic symbol. The recycled metals were collected from 6.21 million electronic devices donated across Japan. The designer wanted a circular design in front of the medals to represent the globe and reflect light.
“Reflection of light reaches various directions so; I hope that the reflected light from the medal would reach all directions when it is worn by the athlete. That is my intention,” Kawanishi told the reporters on Thursday.
