In the past, the Olympic medalists used to receive their medals along with beautiful celebratory ‘olympic flowers’. But this scenario has changed in the Rio Olympics 2016 which endorses a ‘sustainability’ program. The Rio Olympic Committee has pledged to observe several practices in order to make the Rio Olympics as eco-friendly as possible.
The committee has decided to cut short the consumption of resources like water, electricity, food and raw materials in order to prevent their colossal wastage due to negligence.
In Rio Olympics, recycling is emphasized. Medals, ribbons, etc are made from recycled material. Also, the podiums will be turned into furniture after the Olympics end.
Some curious twitter users noticed this and raised questions. Have a look on some of the tweets:
The Rio Committees’s spokesperson said in this context:
In the interest of sustainability and innovation, it was decided that flowers would not be awarded to medal winners at this Olympic Games.
The flowers awarded are usually thrown away or, even if kept, would struggle to survive in the tropical Brazilian climate.
Further in the context of the sustainability program, the Rio officials said:
The athletes who top the podium in Rio will receive medals made from gold that has been extracted without the use of mercury and which was produced according to strict sustainability criteria, from the initial mining all the way through to the design of the end product.
Christy Nicolay, the Rio Games’ executive producer of sports presentations, added:
“There are so many sports in the summer Olympics and some of them are so different.”
Therefore, in Rio Olympics 2016, the medalists are awarded a colorful sculpture of the Rio Olympics logo along with the medals. Also, a few flowers are included on the stage when the medals are being given to the winners, rather than awarding individual bouquets to each winner.
This decision of Rio Committee makes Rio 2016 the first Olympics to do away with flower bouquets while awarding the winners. And it definitely makes more sense to give the medals to the winners along with Rio logo statuette that they can cherish forever than giving them flowers which will soon wilt away and disappear.
Also, the message of sustainability and recycling will reach to a large audience through this noble initiative of Rio Olympics.
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