Exceedingly rare medal from the Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics, which was issued as the bronze medal to third-place winners and also used as the participation medal of the Games. Bronze, 56 mm, 69 gm, by Raoul Benard, Paris. The front features a victorious athlete holding ice skates and skis high in the air with the Alps in the background; the reverse is inscribed at length in French, “Chamonix Mont-Blanc Sports D’Hiver, 25 Janvier–5 Fevrier 1924, Organises par le Comite Olympique Francais sous le haut patronage du Comite International Olympique a l'occasion de la celebration de la VIII Olympiade [Chamonix Mont-Blanc Winter Sports, 25 January–5 February 1924, Organized by the French Olympic Committee under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee on the occasion of the celebration of the VIII Olympiad].”
The 1924 Chamonix Games were the very first Winter Olympics and a total of sixteen nations were represented. The participation medal of the Chamonix 1924 Winter Games is identical to the Olympiad’s third place bronze winner’s medal, a unique distinction across all Olympic medals; it subsequently exists as one of the very rarest commemoration prizes, equal to other coveted participatory rarities from Olympic Games in St. Louis (Summer 1904), Lake Placid (Winter 1932), and Stockholm (Summer 1956). Only 294 athletes participated, making any Chamonix medal very rare.
