Winning a gold medal is one of the highest achievements in sports, the beautiful round medallion rewards years of hard work and confirms an athlete's status as the very best. Russia is going to sweeten the deal a bit in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (no, they're not wrapping chocolate inside), with extra medals that have pieces of the meteorite that crashed in Russia earlier this year will be given to the gold medal winners.


A medal containing a piece of something that came from SPACE. How cool is that? The lucky space gold (or space rock chain) will be given to athletes who win an event on February 15, 2014 (the one year anniversary of the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk). According to R-Sport, The events that qualify will be the men's 1500 meter speedskating, the women's 1000m and men's 1500 short track, the women's cross-country skiing relay, the men's K-125 ski jump, the women's super giant slalom and men's skeleton events.

Chelyabinsk Region Culture Minister Alexei Betekhtin said:

"We will hand out our medals to all the athletes who will win gold on that day, because both the meteorite strike and the Olympic Games are the global events”


Two chains. [R-Sport via USA Today, NY Daily News, Image Credit: Getty]