Owner Comments:
MEDAL APPEARANCE/CONDITION:
Brilliant Gem+ — Pedigreed: Tiffany & Co.
(Slabbed in Oversized Holder)
*Gorgeous high-grade specimen exhibiting sharp untoned surfaces; Incredibly well-preserved for its age and significantly large size - Of the three graded examples by NGC, this is the finest known (Note the NGC population report was available for this issue in 2017. As of 2022, it no longer is. So, this may no longer be true). — Originally purchased with Tiffany & Co. box and pouch.*
MEDAL BACKGROUND:
Struck to commemorate the 'National Sports Festival' which took place in Colorado Springs, CO in both 1978 and 1979. These were the first two years the event was held and recurred in various locations until it ended in Denver, CO in 1995.
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Two of these medals reside in this collection, as I initially purchased them as a set prior to sending them in to be graded. Their respective grades are NGC MS-65 and MS-66. Despite being well preserved, it would appear larger overall medals are much more challenging to obtain in grades higher than MS-66, as there is greater surface area for potential hairlines, marks, and spots.
RARITY: Unknown; Likely scarce
NGC Census not available.
MEDAL DESCRIPTION:
(Struck by Tiffany & Co., Silver, 64mm, Round, Plain Edge)
OBVERSE: National Sports Festival - Colorado Springs / 1979 / (National Sports Logo)
REVERSE: (Depiction of Olympic Torch) / Tiffany & Co. / Ⓒ
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
(The National Sports Festival):
The National Sports Festival, also known as the 'U.S. Olympic Festival' was an amateur multi-sport event held in the U.S. by the United States Olympic Committee in the years between Olympic Games. As the competitive position of U.S. athletes in the Olympics slipped relative to that of the Soviets and East Germans, it was felt the U.S. needed some kind of multi-sports event to simulate the Olympic experience. It was 'originally' called the National Sports Festival and was the nation's largest amateur sporting event, before ending in 1995."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
“The Soviet Union's version of the mid-summer phenomenon is known as Spartakiade. The Japanese call theirs Kokutai. In South Korea, which has held one every year since 1920, more than 20,000 people joyfully take part. Now, at last, the U.S. has joined the fun. The National Sports Festival, a Spartakiade of our very own, was born last week in the mountains and valleys of Colorado.
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The four-day festival was sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee, which plans to stage it annually except during Olympic years. The USOC's thinking is that a "national Olympics" will stimulate the development of young talent, provide a measuring stick for top performers and focus public attention on the country's oft-neglected Olympic sports effort. And to judge by the lavish exercise in pomp and perspiration that took place in the Rockies, the festival could well become a fixture.
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By staging it in Colorado, whose electorate paradoxically spurned the 1976 Winter Olympics, the USOC was further solidifying that state's position as the center of this country's Olympic activity. The USOC moved its headquarters from Manhattan to Colorado Springs in June and it has located one of its two new Olympic Training Centers in the same city. The festival is the latest example of a new can-do spirit on the part of the Olympic brass. Skeptics expected it to be chaotic, and with 2,165 athletes competing in 26 sports in venues up to 40 miles apart, it might easily have been. But the $1.4-million undertaking impressively survived the D-day logistics as well as a severe hailstorm on Saturday that played havoc with track, archery and field hockey events.
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The sometimes hectic program included action in baseball, softball and synchronized swimming, all of which are non-Olympic sports. But the festival had an overwhelmingly Olympic flavor. Instead of Bulgaria battling with Chad, and Singapore meeting Brazil, the competition brought together teams representing four regions of the U.S.: South (wearing green uniforms), West (red), East (blue) and Midwest (orange). Granted, two Hawaiians, a Californian and an Arizonan played for "the South" in men's volleyball, which probably made it just as well that no band struck up Dixie or the like during the festival's awards ceremonies. But international rules were followed, medals awarded and the athletes actually seemed to care who won. Athletes usually do.”
Credited Source: Archived Article from Vault | August 07, 1978 | “It was a Towering Success: The First National Sports Festival Took Place in the Shadow of Pike’s Peak and 2,165 Athletes had their Day in the Sun” | By Joe Jares