A rare gold medal from the 1904 St. Louis Olympics sells for $545,371 at auction

BOSTON (AP) — A gold medal awarded at the first Olympics hosted on U.S. soil was sold at auction for over half a million dollars, part of hundreds of lots of memorabilia from the Games over the decades, a firm announced Friday.

The 1904 St. Louis Olympics medal, auctioned for $545,371, bears the inscription “Olympiad, 1904” and shows a victorious athlete holding a wreath on the front. On the other side, Nike, the goddess of victory in ancient Greek mythology, is shown alongside Zeus, the pantheon's king of gods, and the words for the 110-meter hurdles it was awarded. The medal, awarded to American Fred Schule, includes the original ribbon and leather case.

This was the first Olympics where gold medals were awarded and the Americans took advantage, winning 78 of 96 events. Unlike Olympic medals these days which are mostly made of silver with gold plating, these were smaller and made entirely of gold.

Bobby Eaton, an Olympic specialist at Boston-based RR Auction, said it is unusual for a medal of this kind to come up for auction though this particular one came from Schule's family’s collection.

"No one really knows exactly how many 1904 Olympic gold medals are still out there,” Eaton said. “What we do know is they’re exceedingly rare. Of the roughly 100 gold medals awarded in St. Louis, many have been lost to time or are tucked away in private collections and museums.”

Beyond the gold medals, the 1904 Games also were remembered for plenty of controversy and oddities.

The Games were originally awarded to Chicago, but organizers of the World’s Fair in St. Louis feared competition for attendance and protested against a second international event held simultaneously. Fair organizers threatened to host their own athletic events. It took the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, to forge peace by moving the Olympics 300 miles (483 kilometers) south.

If that drama weren't enough, Fred Lorz looked to have won the marathon race until it was discovered he rode partway in a car.

Organizers ran “Anthropology Days,” when members of indigenous tribes from across the globe on hand for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the formal name of the St. Louis World's Fair, were plucked from the fair and told to compete with no warning.

The Games also saw the debut of boxing and freestyle wrestling, sports that have clung to the Summer Olympics until the present day, along with long-since-forgotten croquet and tug-of-war events.

“These medals aren’t just about the competition — they’re a snapshot of the early days of the modern Olympics,” Eaton said. “To have one like this, in such exceptional condition, is truly remarkable and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for collectors.”

The sale is part of hundreds of Olympic items that were up for sale at the auction, including a bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics, as well as gold medals from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, 1964 Tokyo Olympics, 1998 Nagano Olympics and 2012 London Olympics.

Olympic memorabilia has long fetched a good price.

In 2022, the silver medal captured by Luz Long, the German long jumper who befriended Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, sold at auction for more than $488,000. A first-place silver medal awarded at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 sold for $180,111 when it was put up for auction in 2021 and a gold medal from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver sold for $68,750 in 2019.

Athletes also have auctioned off their medals for charity, including two-time canoe champion Yuri Cheban from Ukraine whose two golds and a bronze were auctioned for $109,451 in 2022 to help the war effort. Swimmer Ryan Lochte auctioned off his six Olympic silver and bronze medals the same year, with the $166,779 raised going to an organization benefitting children. He kept his gold medals.

The next summer Olympics will be in Los Angeles in 2028, marking the third time the city has hosted the Games. It also hosted the Games in 1932 and 1984.