Corinne Hunt designs medals for the Olympics.

When the call went out in 2008 for artists to submit designs for the Olympic and Paralympic Games' gold, silver and bronze medals, 48 artists from around the world answered back.

The winner of this Olympic competition--Corrine Hunt, an Aboriginal artist of Komoyue and Tingit heritage from Alert Bay on Vancouver Island.

But it was a long process from inspiration to podium to accept the prize. First she had to come up with an eye-catching idea, which was reviewed and shortlisted by an evaluation team. Passing this hurdle, she enriched her proposal into a concept plan, which was reviewed, along with those of the other preliminary winners, by the Vancouver Organizing Committee, and she was declared the front-runner.

But before she could be officially designated the winner, her design had to be confirmed by the International Olympic and Paralympics Committees.

And why did her design win against other world-class artists?

Through an imaginative technique, each of the gold, silver and bronze medals to be won at the Olympic and Paralympic Games is slightly different.

For 615 Olympic Games medals, she took their design from a single art masterpiece, a stylized Orca whale. The whale, like an Olympian, represents a strong athletic creature. She severed a copy of her artwork into pieces. Each piece then became the design of a single medal with all the medals fitting together to make up her whole picture.

For the 399 Paralympics medals, and using the same technique, she applied aspects of a raven on a rising totem pole. She chose the raven as it represents the physical challenges that Paralympians face and rise above.

Sir Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympics, said the Raven was important because it symbolizes the powers of transformation and determination ... "qualities every Paralympian embodies on and off the field of play."

Each of the medals has an undulating surface, another first in Olympic medal history. The slight variation of the surface represent the mountains and seas of western British Columbia, and the homeland of the First Nations on whose lands the games will be held. It was part of the concept proposal of architect and designer Omer Arbel.

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Corinne Hunt and Omer Arbel became a team, working together for 18 months, working out a way that her contemporary Aboriginal designs could be transferred to an undulating surface. Then it was up to the Royal Canadian Mint's 34 technicians to mastermind how to etch each of Hunt's separate designs onto the undulating surface of 1014 Olympic medals.

While the Olympic medals are circular, the Paralympics medals are a super-ellipse, or squared circle. Both are the same size and weigh between 500 to 576 grams, depending on the medal. They are some of the heaviest medals in Olympic and Paralympics history. The Olympic medals, which will be presented to the winners, are 100 mm in diameter and about six mm thick, while the Paralympics medals are 95 mm wide and about six mm thick.

As an added bonus, each medal winner will be presented with a silk scarf printed with a copy of Corinne Hunt's master art work, the Orca whale for an Olympian, the raven for a Paralympian, another first in Olympic history.

The Olympic winning medals, the Inukshuk symbol of the Olympic games, the Aboriginal pavilion, the First Nation art program and the partnership with the Four Host Nations, will showcase Canadian First Nation arts and artists to the world at the Vancouver Olympic Games in February 2010.

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By Katherine McIntyre

Raven's Eye Writer