DESCRIPTION

The now-famous Olympic emblem (five interconnecting rings) would appear for the first time on an Olympic Medal. The obverse depicts the figure of “Victory” holding a laurel branch while standing on a horse-drawn sled. The Olympic rings and the designer’s name lie at the lower edge. The reverse has the legend II / JEVX / OLYMPIQVES / D’HIVER / St. MORITZ / 1928 inscribed above a laurel branch. The medal was presented in a tan cardboard box.

THE GAMES

The 1928 Winter Games, hosted by St. Moritz, Switzerland, were the first to be held in a different nation than the Summer Games of the same year. A new event was contested: the skeleton, which is like luge, except the athletes descend headfirst. Speed skater Clas Thunberg added two more gold medals to the three he had won in 1924. Johan Grøttumbråten of Norway won both cross-country events and the Nordic combined. Another Norwegian, Sonja Henie, caused a sensation by winning the women’s figure skating at the age of fifteen. Her record as the youngest winner of an individual event stood for 74 years. In men’s figure skating, Gillis Grafström of Sweden won his third straight gold medal. Canada again dominated the ice hockey tournament, winning their three matches 11-0, 14-0 and 13-0.