TURIN, Italy Some folks think it looks like a doughnut. Others see a bagel. Or a giant Life Saver, or a compact disc. An Austrian Olympian used it as an eye patch.
Whatever the view, it really is an Olympic medal. Designed by Italians who thought long and hard about the best way to symbolize their country, the Turin medals are very different from any predecessor.
Which is to say, for the first time in Winter Games history, the gold, silver and bronze all have a hole in the middle. Designer Dario Quatrini says the hole represents the open space of an Italian piazza, or city square.
Except the medal isn't square at all -- it's round. And when worn, Quatrini has explained, it has yet another meaning: "Circling and revealing the area near the heart and focusing attention on the athlete's vital energy and human emotions," says the Turin Olympic Committee.