Amsterdam Olympic Official Medal, 1928
date: label: date made
content: 1928
name: label: used
content: Levine, Ben
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Round metal attached in the center of a faded red fabric rosette. The multi-colored Olympic rings are located in the center of the medal with "IXe OLYMPIADE AMSTERDAM 1928 OFFICIEL" embossed on the front of the metal. This belonged to the donor's father Ben Levine. Levine was a participant in the development of amateur sports competition from 1902 as a boy of 13 when he went to work for James Sullivan, President of the Amateur Athletic Union until his retirement from the A.A.U. in 1968. Levine's primary contribution was to Amateur boxing, which he first promoted prior to 1920. He staged the first Golden Gloves and was the Assistant Manager of the U.S. Boxing teams at the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games and an international jurist in boxing at the Olympics in 1932.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The 1928 Summer Olympics, also known as the Games of the IX Olympiad were held in Amsterdam with 46 countries, 2,606 men and 277 women athletes participating. Instead of the months long competition which had been standard to date, the sixteen-day template for holding the Games began during these Games as did the lighting of the Olympic flame for the duration of the Games. While Olympic sponsors began at the 1908 games with soup stock company Oxo, Coca-Cola became an Olympic sponsor for the first time at the 1928 Games, a partnership that exists today. With the advent of the automobile, parking at the Amsterdam games was expected to be in demand although there were few spaces available. A new parking symbol was used to specify parking for the Games, a white P on a blue ground, the international sign still used today. While women’s athletics and gymnastics were added this year, the IOC limited the women’s long-distance running events to 200 meters as women were judged “too frail” to run farther distances. American Johnny Weissmuller, who would later gain fame in Hollywood playing Tarzan, won two gold medals while the United States led the medal count with 56.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: name of sport
content: Boxing
label: level of sport
content: Amateur
label: level of sport
content: Olympics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Bertram Levine
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.0049.03
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0049.03
label: accession number
content: 1991.0049
objectType: label: Object Name
content: medal, olympic
label: Object Name
content: medal, summer olympics
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fabric (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in; 6.35 cm