The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 29, July 18, 2004, Article 10

OLYMPIC MEDAL COLLECTION DISPLAYED

  There was an Associated Press story this week about
  a display of Olympic participation medals in San Diego:

  "Art Prior has 16 Olympic medals -- six first-place,
  seven seconds, and three thirds. He's been a regular at
  the Summer Olympics since 1972. And, at 63, he still
  runs sprints every day.

  But the last time the San Diego resident had a medal
  hung around his neck was in high school.  And, to be
  honest, he's never been cheered on the Olympic podium.

  Instead, Prior is one of a small but dedicated group of
  people worldwide who collect Olympic medals -- a
  feat in itself.

  "It's probably as difficult as collecting the Medal of Honor,"
  Prior said."

  "Despite the challenges, Prior's collection -- which is on
  display this summer at a local sports museum, the San Diego
  Hall of Champions -- has slowly and steadily grown at a
  rate of about a medal a year. For 15 years he has combed
  garage sales, antique stores, memorabilia catalogs and
  eBay for medals, though many have come to him through
  Olympic memorabilia dealers.

  The difficulty is, of course, that few medal winners want to
  part with their prizes."

  "You put scarcity and personal involvement together, and
  you've got something that's very hard to get out of somebody's
  hands," Cincinnati-based collector Pete Wade said. "Even if
  there were 10,000 of them, people would be hard-pressed to
  give them up."

  "Still, Wade has managed to collect almost 50 Olympic
  medals, which were displayed at the Salt Lake City and
  Atlanta games.

  Both Wade and Prior have gotten help building their collections
  from Ingrid O'Neil, an Olympics memorabilia dealer in
  Vancouver, Wash., who each year auctions off between 20
  and 30 medals. O'Neil said the medals become available in a
  variety of ways."

  "A medal that was minted but never awarded -- if there was a
   tie, for example -- might be had for as little as $1,500, but a
   rare medal from the first modern Olympics in 1896 can go for
   upward of $20,000. Medals with documentation showing
   they belonged to famous winners sometimes go for more.

  Australian track and field star Shirley Strickland de la Hunty
  sold her seven medals as part of a lot of Olympic memorabilia
  at a 2001 auction, fetching about $200,000. She was criticized
  by some for doing so, but said she owed it to her 11
  grandchildren to help pay for their education."

  "Prior says he is proud of his collection, but his pride can't
  match that of an athlete who earned it.

  After all, he said, "I just bought these things."

  To read the full story, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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