Beautiful winner's medal issued to Hungarian canoeist Gyorgy Meszaros at the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics. Silver, 68 mm, 102 gm, by Giuseppe Cassioli; manufactured by Artistice Fiorentini. The front depicts a victorious athlete being carried by several jubilant athletes; the reverse, inscribed, "Giochi Della XVII Olimpiade Roma MCMLX," features a 'Seated Victory' with the Colosseum in the background. The medal is set in its original cast bronze bezel, engraved at the bottom with the name of the sport in Italian, "Canoa,” and suspends from its beautiful bronze winner’s chain with 20 olive leaf links. Includes its official 24.5 x 18.5 second-place winner’s diploma issued to Meszaros, which bears scattered toning and dampstaining.
Held at beautiful Lake Albano at the foot of Monte Cavo, a septet of sprint canoe racing events was contested at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, five for men and two for women. Meszaros, one of the world’s premiere sprint canoeists throughout the mid-1950s and early 1970s, competed in both the Men's K-1 4 x 500-meter event and the Men's K-2 1000-meter event and earned second-place finishes in both, as did his teammate Andras Szente. Although the Soviet Union earned the most gold medals with three, Meszaros’s Hungarian squad led the field with six Olympic winner’s medals, half of which were of the silver variety.
