Medals to be awarded at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics were unveiled Thursday, "with the Korean alphabet hangeul as their motif," according to Yoo Jee-ho of YONHAP. Presented at a ceremony held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in N.Y. with South Korea President Moon Jae-in in attendance, Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals, designed by local industrial designer Lee Suk-woo, "feature hangeul consonants on their bodies." Those consonants are "ㅍ, ㅊ, ㄷ, ㅇ, ㄱ, ㄹ, ㅁ," representing the Korean words for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. They were written and stretched in 3D and "formed together in a cylinder shape." PyeongChang's organizing committee said that the medals were "also inspired by the texture of tree trunks, as trees represent the work put into developing Korean culture and the Olympic Games." Each medal is 92.5mm wide, 109mm long and between 4.4mm and 9.42mm thick. PyeongChang also presented the medal lanyard, which has snowflake patterns embroidered on "Gapsa," a type of cloth used to make the traditional Korean costume hanbok (YONHAP, 9/21).
