The 2014 Winter Olympics will take place in Sochi, Russia between the 7th and 23rd of February. The dates coincide with the one-year anniversary of the meteorite that hit the country on February 15th this year. The incident led to over 100 people being hospitalised and damages of 1 billion roubles (approximately €23 million), but amazingly no-one was killed.

The victors in the seven finals to be held on the 15th will be given a special medal to mark the event, as their gold medals will contain a small chunk of the meteorite remains. The events where the extra rare medals will be handed out are the women's cross-country skiing relay & super giant slalom, the men's 1,500 meter speedskating, skeleton events & K-125 ski jump and the women's 1,000m and men's 1,500m short track. The 91 other gold medalists will have to make do with a standard model.

The Chelyabinsk region’s Cultural Minister Alexei Betekhtin said of the prize “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”.

Amateur videos of the meteorite strike attracted tens of millions of YouTube views earlier this year: