As many as 7,000 people have lined up each day at the Canadian mint in downtown Vancouver - some waiting as long as seven hours - to don a white cotton glove and touch one of sport's most valuable prizes.
“We'll stand as long as it takes,” said Christopher Ridge of Vancouver, who was waiting with his 7 and 9-year-old sons, several hundred people back, to get in one day this week.
“It's just so exciting to be able to touch a piece of the Olympics,” he said. “They'll remember this forever.” Inside the mint, each person is given a white glove, because no prints are allowed on the medals. They are attached to ribbons, just like the ones given to the athletes, but the privilege of wearing one is reserved for Olympians.
This year's medals are among the heaviest in the history of the Winter Games, tipping the scales at more than half a kilogram. They also have an unusual look - an undulating face to evoke the landscape of British Columbia - and each is laser-etched with a design based on two original pieces of local artwork.
That wavy structure has been criticized online, compared to a microwaved Frisbee, a warped vinyl record or the melting clocks in the famous painting by Salvador Dali.
But coming out of the mint, Vancouverites were having none of it.
“I think they're unique, just like this is a unique place,” said Callie Withers of West Vancouver, who waited in line for more than an hour to hold the gold. “I think they're perfect. I wish I could wear one.” The gold medal actually has a sterling silver core, and the bronze is mostly copper. Vancouver organizers wanted it that way because copper looks less like gold than bronze.
The medals are on display through Sunday, when the games end. The mint is considering other ways for Canadians to see the medals.
“We thought, realistically, maybe 4,000 people a day would be a normal kind of turnout,” mint spokesman Alexandre Reeves said. “The enthusiasm has been really, really surprising and flattering.”
