Medal Designs For '18 Games Feature Korean Alphabet Motif

The medal designs for the '18 PyeongChang Games were unveiled at a "ceremony simultaneously held" in N.Y. and South Korea, with the "Korean alphabet hangeul as their motif." South Korea President Moon Jae-in was in attendance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to showcase the medals, which were designed by Korean industrial designer Lee Suk-woo. The hangeul consonants on the medals "represent the Korean words" for the PyeongChang Olympics. They were "written and stretched in 3-D and formed together in a cylinder shape." The design also was "inspired by the texture of tree trunks," and the curved pattern of the medal case is a nod to "Korean traditional architecture" (YONHAP, 9/21).