Medals for Milan-Cortina Olympics represent 'two halves coming together'
VENICE (AP) — The Milan-Cortina Olympics are the first games with two host cities in the name. So the medals for the upcoming Winter Games represent 'two halves coming together.'
Organizers for the next Olympics and Paralympics unveiled the medals for the games at a ceremony alongside the Grand Canal in Venice on Tuesday.
They are described as 'a graphic abstraction capturing the union of two halves in perpetual motion' and 'two unique halves coming together to create a bold, unified statement.'
They feature the Olympic rings on one side and the games' logos on the other with specific events engraved on each medal.
The Olympics are scheduled for Feb. 6-22, followed by the Paralympics March 6-15. A total of 1,146 medals will be awarded across 195 events between the two.
The games will be spread across a wide swath of northern Italy, with ice sports in Milan and snow sports in several different mountain clusters. Venice is the capital of the Veneto region that includes Cortina d'Ampezzo, which will host women's Alpine skiing, sliding and curling.
The medals are being produced by Italy's state mint, the Zecca dello Stato.
'I can assure you they won't deteriorate,' Milan-Cortina organizing committee president Giovanni Malagò said. 'They could even be recycled, although I hope nobody will do that.'
Some of the medals from last year's Paris Olympics quickly lost their shine.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports in this topic
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
24 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sweat, sneakers, and summer nights: The Goodman League's enduring legacy in Southeast DC
WASHINGTON (AP) — The pounding and squeak of Nikes on the drive downcourt sets the soundtrack and the stadium lights kick in as the sun sets. Bodies tussle for the rebound on a missed three-pointer and men shout for the assist on a sweaty summer night. This is the Goodman League, in the heart of Southeast Washington's Barry Farm neighborhood. Cigarette smoke from the audience floats across the court, mixing with the smell of fried fish for sale just off courtside. This is the place to be seen in the neighborhood; the bleachers are packed and others sit in picnic chairs all around the court. The crowd's attire ranges from trendy fashion, rhinestone sunglasses and high heels to backwards baseball caps, tank tops and baggy shorts. They gather to watch basketball played by men from divergent walks of life — some a little on the chubby side, some seemingly without an ounce of body fat, but all completely soaked in sweat. The land here, which was originally owned by slave owner James Barry until early 1868, has changed over the last 16 years. The notorious Barry Farm housing complex exists now only as piles of rubble, overgrown with weeds and grass and surrounded by a cyclone fence. A new condo complex offers views of where rows of nondescript brick apartments used to stand. What remains of the old neighborhood are the basketball courts of the Goodman League, revamped in 1996 by Miles Rawls. This is where the old Barry Farm Community Summer Basketball League operated from its founding in 1977 to 1995. Now under Rawls' oversight, it remains a family-friendly community hub and neighborhood magnet. The referees, like the players, are a motley crew — jolly and occasionally out of breath as they try to keep pace with young men who hail from vastly different levels of the game. Players come here from across the so-called DMV — the local term for the intertwined communities of D.C., northern Virginia and southern Maryland. From local streetball legends to rising high school and college prospects, these courts have even showcased the occasional future NBA legend, like D.C.-area native Kevin Durant. 'At the end of the day it's the kids, the comradery, the getting everybody together from different parts of the city, different parts of the DMV,' Rawls said. 'It's what I call a safe haven.' In one of the poorest and most crime-ridden parts of the nation's capital, Rawls' also knows that offering a bit of alternative recreation can have a deep sociological impact. He has no illusions about what some of his regular players 'would be doing if they weren't here for three or four hours a day six days a week ... that's what pretty much drives me,' he said. More than two decades after he first started, Rawls looks at the court and ongoing daily pickup games as his life's work and legacy. 'It uplifts me man, to be honest with you. It brings tears to my eyes, 29 years later I'm still relevant, still on top. That's a long time to do anything, in the hood, in one of the worst neighborhoods and wards in D.C.,' he said. 'I wouldn't trade it for nothing.'
Hamilton Spectator
24 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Denny Hamlin continues climb in NASCAR's career wins list. With 60 in sight, how far can he go?
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Denny Hamlin has stood his ground that wins — enough of them to soon earn his place inside NASCAR's career top-10 list — matter more to his legacy than a championship. Easy to say, of course, with 58 race victories to zero titles. The 44-year-old Hamlin, still driving the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing as he's done since his rookie season in 2006, is motivated to reach the top 10 this season over the final 15 races of the Cup season. Kevin Harvick is 10th on the career list with 60 and Kyle Busch, still active with Richard Childress Racing, is ninth with 63, giving Hamlin realistic numbers to shoot for the rest of the season. Best to take advantage at tracks where he's had success, such as Dover Motor Speedway, where he won Sunday for the second straight year and third time overall, compared with a track like this weekend's race on the Indianapolis oval, where Hamlin is 0 for 16. 'I don't think I've ever wanted to go back to back so bad,' Hamlin said of Dover. '(Indy's) a track that I've just come so fricking close to winning. I just want to cross off all the major racetracks on our schedule.' Hamlin is a driver who thrives in the chaos like few others — if any can — in the series. His win at Dover came days after the race team he owns with Michael Jordan suffered a setback in its court fight with NASCAR . He insisted ahead of the race that the legal issues never caused a distraction for him in the race car, then proved it on the mile concrete track with a series-best fourth win of the season. Maybe more dark clouds — like the ones that opened up Sunday, causing a rain delay just laps ahead of the scheduled finish — can fuel Hamlin at Indy. 'All I can hope is that something happens this week that derails everything and then I'll do better,' Hamlin said. Hamlin then turned to a NASCAR employee and cracked, 'Maybe it'll come from them.' Can Hamlin realistically get to 60 in 2025? He won eight times in 2010, six times in 2019 and seven in 2020, all totals that would get him to 60 this year. 'When you get him in a situation where he's got the ball in his hands and it's time to go win the race, he finds a way to do that most times,' crew chief Chris Gayle said. It's a fitting analogy for a race team owned by a former NFL coach. At his pace, Hamlin remains a contender to cash in this November at Phoenix Raceway and win his first NASCAR championship — even if he lost out on the $1 million prize in the series' first In-season challenge. $1 million is on the line The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who floated the idea of a midseason tournament on his 'Actions Detrimental' podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media 'such a win for our sport and drivers.' He jokingly added, 'I will collect my 1M royalty next season.' Hamlin earned the No. 1 seed — and was promptly eliminated in the first race by Ty Dillon, the No. 32 seed. Dillon faces Ty Gibbs next week at Indianapolis to decide the first winner of the tournament. Was the In-season challenge a success? Hamlin said the five-race, bracket-style tournament overall was a success — but not without a few kinks. Some of the seeding was off, such as Shane van Gisbergen not qualifying for the field, then ripping off consecutive wins on the Chicago street race and Sonoma Raceway during the tournament races. And sure, everyone loves a Cinderella in March. But two in July isn't necessarily making the tournament the NASCAR story of the summer. 'I think it has been unfortunate, right, you probably had a lot of the top seeds get knocked out pretty early in it, but overall, I thought the implementation of it has been good,' Hamlin said. The other side of the argument is this: Would any fan or media outlet really care about a pair of winless drivers such as Gibbs (the sixth seed) or Dillon at this point of the season without $1 million at stake? 'For a team like us, at this point in the season, we're not exactly where we want to be yet, but we're trending in a good direction,' Dillon said on TNT. 'Our story doesn't get told in years past. It's mainly the guys trying to fight for the points position. It's the guys running up front, trying to win the race. But our story and our growth in the year stops getting told. I'm grateful we've been able to show our personality as a team.' Unlike the All-Star race where the winner pockets $1 million, the driver with the best finish earns the cash prize, a ring, jackets and a trophy. How they fared Dillon had luck on his side during his run, with his lone top-10 finish coming in the first race in Atlanta. He advanced in that race after Hamlin crashed out and finished 31st. Dillon twice has finished 20th, including at Dover. He has a best finish of 13th in five career races on the Indy oval. Gibbs, the grandson of team owner and football and NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, and Dillon have failed to win in a combined 374 Cup races. Dillon has only two career top-five finishes in a career that dates to 2014. The 22-year-old Gibbs has a much better pedigree, winning the 2022 Xfinity Series title, a series in which he was a 12-time winner. He has six top 10s already this season and could make NASCAR's playoffs on points. Gibbs has three straight top 10s in the tournament, including a fifth-place finish at Dover. Gibbs finished 23rd on the Indy oval last season. He's done enough to impress his grandfather. 'There's some people there that we got off to a terrible start, it was awful, (but) I had people on that group that came to me encouraging me, ideas for me, after it. I think they care for Ty. It just was a huge deal,' the 84-year-old Gibbs said. 'This sport will really measure you. But those guys have fought back.' ___ AP auto racing:
Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
USOPC asks for tweak of college sports bill to set minimum spending limits for Olympic programs
Associated Press U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee leaders are pushing lawmakers for tweaks to legislation that would regulate college sports by adding guarantees that schools will spend the same percentage on Olympic programs in the future as they do now. USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland told The Associated Press on Monday that a letter she and chair Gene Sykes sent to members of Congress last week was intended to restart a conversation about the SCORE Act, which currently calls for schools to sponsor at least 16 teams. That's a number that conforms with current NCAA rules for Power Four schools, and one that Hirshland worries would give schools no incentive to fund non-revenue sports that power the Olympic pipeline. 'You look and you say, 'Is that effectively going to thwart the issue of allocating too many resources to football and not enough to other things?' And my assessment is, no, it's not going to do that,' Hirshland said. The USOPC says all but three of the 67 Power Four schools sponsor more than 16 sports and the average school in that group has more than 21. At last year's Paris Olympics, 75% of U.S. Olympians and 53% of Paralympians had a connection with U.S. college sports. The SCORE Act recently passed a House subcommittee and is set for markup this week, a process in which lawmakers amend certain facets of the bill. Hirshland said USOPC leadership has long been in discussions about adding provisions that would compel schools to spend at least the same percentage on Olympic sports as they do now. 'The bill, as it's written, would make it too easy for a school to starve 15 programs and invest in one,' Hirshland said. 'It's important schools have the latitude to make decisions that are most effective for the school, but while also creating an environment that says 'You don't just need to be a football school.'' She said she was encouraged that lawmakers were including provisions for protecting Olympic sports in a bill that would regulate the shifting college landscape. The SCORE Act proposes to provide limited antitrust protection for the NCAA and would place the college sports' name, image, likeness system under one federal law instead of a mishmash of state regulations. Starting this month, schools are allowed to pay up to $20.5 million to athletes in NIL deals. Most of that money will be funneled to football and basketball players, whose sports generate the bulk of college athletics revenue. It has left many to wonder about the future of the Olympic programs. The act also includes a section that purports to protect Olympic sports with the 16-team minimum, but in the letter to House leaders, Sykes and Hirshland were skeptical of that. 'The USOPC is committed to being a partner in this process and would welcome the opportunity to share further insights, data, and recommendations,' they wrote. It also mandates that athletes not be turned into employees of their schools, a sticking point for some Democrats that figures to keep the bill from moving along in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass. Hirshland said the USOPC hasn't taken a 'strong position' on the employment issue, and is mostly concerned that any legislation includes strong protection for Olympic sports. She says the USOPC-backed idea of keeping spending at certain percentages isn't the only answer to the issue, but might be the simplest and best. 'We don't want schools to starve Olympic sports by cutting them or starving them,' she said. 'We want them to continue to provide investment in the growth of these sports.' ___ AP college sports: in this topic
