Final week, we reported {that a} uncommon gold medal from the 1904 Olympic Video games in St. Louis, received by Crew USA’s Fred Schule within the males’s 110m hurdles, was being auctioned for US$185,000. On Thursday, the medal, an iconic token of Olympic historical past, bought for a whopping $545,371, in keeping with RR Public sale.
The relic bears nice significance to collectors of Olympic historical past who purpose to gather a set of medals from every Video games–however Schule’s medal is the one privately-owned medal from a sanctioned 1904 Olympic occasion. “That degree of rarity—mixed with its situation and provenance—explains why collectors have been so decided to amass it,” mentioned RR Auctions’ Olympic specialist Bobby Eaton. The medal was initially priced at US$150,000, and had jumped in worth to $185,000 inside the first half-month of bidding.
The gold medal, in wonderful situation contemplating its age, is available in its authentic, and visibly timeworn, leather-based case, with a yellow, crimson, blue and white striped ribbon. It encompasses a victorious athlete and exhibits different athletes collaborating in varied sports activities int he background. “Olympiad, 1905,” the inscription reads. The title of the jeweller who produced the medal, Dieges & Clust (a New York firm established in 1898) can be etched onto the floor, whereas the again is inscribed with “110m hurdles.”
Schule received the dash in 16 seconds flat. Now, 121 years later, the world report for the 110m hurdles stands at 12.80 seconds, set by American Aries Merritt on the Brussels Diamond League in 2012.
Classic Olympic monitor and area gold medal being auctioned for $185,000
St. Louis’s 1904 Video games have been the primary to current gold, silver and bronze medals to first, second and third-place finishers, respectively. The competitors additionally marked the primary time the U.S. hosted the Olympics, which they’ve since hosted seven extra occasions (4 Summer season and 4 Winter Video games). They’ll host their ninth and tenth Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and Salt Lake Metropolis in 2034.
Broken Paris 2024 medals
The exceptional form of the century-old gold medal doesn’t assist to dismiss considerations concerning the declining qualify of Olympic medals in fashionable competitors. Latest headlines have uncovered the deteriorating state of quite a few Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic awards, presenting flaking surfaces corresponding to historic artifacts or “crocodile pores and skin.” The French mint, accountable for producing the 2024 medals, has reportedly retrieved greater than 100 broken items from athletes.
Les médailles d’or olympiques décernées en France sont rouillées après seulement quatre mois. pic.twitter.com/VniwKegWJm
— SILVANO TROTTA OFFICIEL (@silvano_trotta) December 29, 2024
On the identical sale, nonetheless, a bronze medal received on the Paris 2024 Video games was auctioned for $34,769, seemingly not exhibiting the identical flaws as others within the 2024 batch.