Eigth Place Theta Ring for 8th Place Winners at the 2014 Sochi, Russian Winter Olympics

The first nation to earn an 8th place Theta Ring at a Winter Olympics is Japan.   The eighth letter in the Greek Alphabet is Theta, which coincidentally looks like a number 8, is for 8th place winners.

Luckily eight is lucky number in Japan, due to its associations with the eight fold noble path in Buddhism.  Unfortunately, the 'th' sound (vibrating like the or soft like thin) does not exist in Japanese. 

It is lower case, because upper case is reserved for the Summer Olympics.  But upper case and lower case theta are very similar.   

Congrats to Mr. Kadono, Yuki!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuki_Kadono
Photo Credit: http://www.sochi2014.com/en/athlete-yuki-kadono