Monument in memory of 1980 Summer Olympics unveiled in Moscow

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov unveiled on Thursday a monument dedicated to the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games near the Walk of Fame at the Luzhniki Sports Center.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov unveiled on Thursday a monument dedicated to the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games near the Walk of Fame at the Luzhniki Sports Center.

Russian Olympic Committee head Alexander Zhukov, the secretary of the Physical Education and Sports Development Council under the Russian President, Alexei Kulakovski, and the creator of the monument, sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov also participated in the unveiling.

"This is not a monument, it is a sign of remembering the future," Luzhkov said after unveiling.

The bronze monument symbolizes the connection between the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Its unveiling is timed with the international forum Russia Is A Sport Power, which takes place in Moscow from July 29 to August 1.

According to Rukavishnikov, he had "very little time to create the monument," only a month and a half.

"We decided to create a symbol with a recognizable silhouette," the sculptor said.

The monument is in the shape of a kokoshnik, a traditional woman's headdress, with an eagle holding two bears: a polar bear and a brown bear. The brown bear symbolizes the 1980 Summer Olympics, and the polar bear represents the 2014 Winter Olympics.

"The official symbol of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi has not been chosen yet, and if it were chosen, we wouldn't have been able to use it; therefore, we decided to use a polar bear because it represents winter," Rukavishnikov said.

One of the bears is on a sailboat, the other is on a sledge.

MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti)