Reporters gather around a piece of a meteorite, which according to local authorities and scientists, was lifted from the bottom of the Chebarkul Lake, placed on display in a local museum in Chelyabinsk, Russia, Oct. 18, 2013.
Meteorite Gift Too Spacey for Olympics, Rules IOC
SOCHI, RUSSIA —
The International Olympic Committee has shot down plans to give Saturday's medal-winning athletes at the Sochi Games a piece of a meteorite that exploded over Russia a year ago.
In this frame grab made from a video done with a dashboard camera, on a highway from Kostanai, Kazakhstan, to Chelyabinsk region, Russia, provided by Nasha Gazeta newspaper, February 15, 2013 a meteorite contrail is seen. A meteor streaked across the sky
The fireball, traveling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second, exploded on February 15, 2013 over Chelyabinsk, some 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow, injuring 1,200 people following a massive shock wave.
Chelyabinsk region officials had wanted to mark the anniversary by giving athletes who won a medal at the Olympics on Saturday a piece of it but the IOC said it could only be done after the Games and separately.
"We know the local people of the region there wanted to give an extra gift to the athletes who will get the medals [on Saturday]," Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli said on Friday. "We have said there is no point to do it during the Games. If they want to give something to the athletes after the Games they can do it."
"But athletes get the gold medals awarded by the organizing committee and there is no extra gift from this region of Russia during the medal presentation," added Felli.
The IOC is fiercely protective of its brand, keeping the Games free from any outside involvement, especially during the competitions and the medal ceremonies that command multi-million audiences around the world.
The fields of play are also advertising-free despite the IOC's estimated $1.0 billion revenues from top sponsors for the period 2013-2016.
Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.
