Desirable winner's medal awarded for a weightlifting event at the Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics. Bronze [tombac], 60 mm, 120 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 "ТЯЖЕЛАЯ АТЛЕТИКА" in Cyrillic to indicate the associated sport, weightlifting. The medal is missing its colorful ribbon, and the ribbon loop has been neatly filed off of the top edge.
The United States led sixty-five countries in a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Between the important historical events surrounding the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the scarcity of these uncommon medals, they hold a special international appeal and are sought by collectors worldwide—this is just the second third-place prize we have offered.
