gold medal-worthy

そうなのかな、というのが率直なところです。まあ、選挙でも実弾が飛び交っていることでしょうし、金（きん）ならず、金（かね）で締めくくられる年と思えばよいのでしょうね。
"Of sufficient worth for; deserving of"の意の-worthyは覚えやすいし、幅広く応用が効くフレーズですね（例：creditworthy, respectworthy)。（EnDough）

Kanji meaning gold chosen as best characterizing 2012

KYOTO (Kyodo) -- The kanji "kin" meaning gold was chosen as the single best Chinese character symbolizing this year's national ethos in Japan, a Kyoto-based kanji promotion organization said Wednesday.

The word was selected based on votes cast by the general public as it signifies the gold medals won by Japanese athletes at the London Olympic Games as well as other events considered to be gold medal-worthy, such as the opening of Tokyo Skytree tower and the award of a Nobel Prize to Shinya Yamanaka, according to the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation.

Tokyo Skytree is the world's tallest broadcasting tower constructed in Sumida Ward, Tokyo. Kyoto University Professor Shinya Yamanaka won his Nobel in medicine.

At Kyoto's Kiyomizu temple where this year's kanji was announced, chief priest Seihan Mori handwrote the winning character using a giant Japanese calligraphy brush on "washi," or Japanese paper, 1.5 meters high and 1.3 meters wide.

The kanji that placed second was "wa," or band, commemorating the annular solar eclipse observed this year, in which a dark moon was seen fringed by a band of the sun's fire. The word also represented people banding together to achieve their goals, such as the Japanese teams at the Olympiad and citizens struggling in the midst of reconstruction after the March 11 quake-tsunami disasters.

Third place went to the kanji, "shima," or islands, following territorial rows between Japan, South Korea and China over islands in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.

The annual public poll has been conducted since 1995.

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121212p2g00m0dm090000c.html