58 - Athens, 2004, Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, Olympic bronze medal awarded to an Italian athlete. Diameter 60.00 mm – Weight 115.00 gr.

Athens, 2004, Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, Olympic bronze medal awarded to an Italian athlete. Diameter 60.00 mm – Weight 115.00 gr. The Olympic medal is the main prize awarded to athletes who place in the top three in an Olympic competition. To mark the return of the Olympic Games to Greece, their birthplace, the IOC decided to design a new medal for the most prestigious of all sports medals. What’s new is that the Greek motif appears on both sides, marking the first change to the medal design since the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games. This is highly significant, as from that point onward, the medals embodied the Greek spirit—both in recognition of the Games’ origins and their return to Greece. From 1928 until the Sydney Games, the medals (designed by the Florentine sculptor Giuseppe Cassioli) featured a static allegory of Victory, in the act of offering a laurel wreath to the winner. Here, Nike flies into the stadium to award victory to the best athlete. The Organizing Committee chose to depict the Panathenaic Stadium, where the Games were revived in 1896. The athlete’s sport is engraved on one side. The other side features three elements: the eternal flame lit at Olympia and carried to five continents via the torch relay; the opening lines of Pindar’s “Ode to the Eighth Olympiad,” composed in 460 BC to honor the victory of Alkimedon of Aegina in wrestling; and the emblem of the 2004 Athens Games. The medal was designed by Elena Votsi, a renowned Greek jewelry designer. The bronze specimen shown here belonged to a member of the Italian national soccer team. Buoyed by their European title won in Bochum in May, the Italian Olympic team, coached by Claudio Gentile, won the bronze medal at the Athens Olympics. Italy’s last title came in 1936, when they won the gold medal in Berlin. Defeated in the semifinals by a dominant Argentina (which would go on to win the gold medal), the Azzurrini won the third-place match, defeating Iraq 1-0. A medal of exceptional rarity and prestige, complete with the long original embroidered fabric ribbon.