Winner’s medal issued for the Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics. Gilt silver, 60 mm, 132 gm, by Ilya Postol, Moscow. The front, inscribed in Cyrillic, features a ‘Seated Victory’ with the Colosseum in the background, the reverse features the Moscow Olympic emblem and Olympic flame. The bottom edge is engraved “РУЧНОЙ МЯЧ,” which translates to handball. The medal's ribbon is missing. The men's and women's handball competitions at the 1980 Summer Olympics were held in the Sokolniki Sports Palace and Dynamo Sports Palace from July 20-30th. East Germany won first-place honors in the men's competition, while the Soviet Union finished first in the women's tournament.
The United States led sixty-five countries in a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As a result, only fourteen nations participated in the handball competitions. Between the important historical events surrounding the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the scarcity of these gold medals, they hold a special international appeal and are sought by collectors worldwide.
