Winner’s medal issued for the Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics. Bronze, 60 mm, 118 gm, by Constantino After, Milan. The front, inscribed, “VII Giochi Olimpici Invernali,” features the head of Victory crowned in Olympic rings with a torch to the right; the reverse, inscribed, “Citius Altius Fortius, Cortina 1956,” portrays an ice crystal over Mt. Pomagagnon. The designer name, “Cost/Affer,” visible to the left of Victory’s neck, and the mint on the right edge, “Lorioli.” Much of the medal bears a verdigris patina. Cortina d'Ampezzo was initially selected to host the fifth Winter Olympics in 1944, but the Games were canceled due to the onset of World War II. Awarded as a Winter host twelve years later, Cortina is best remembered for the debut of Soviet athletes in a Winter Olympiad, as well as for the first instance in which the Olympics were internationally televised. A handsome and extremely scarce winner’s medal from the Cortina Games, one of a total 50 third place prizes issued.
