A rare 1904 St Louis Olympic Games 3rd place 'bronze' prize medal for the 440 yards handicap swim won by Marquard Schwarz of the USA, the medal inscri
£3,000 - £5,000
A rare 1904 St Louis Olympic Games 3rd place 'bronze' prize medal for the 440 yards handicap swim won by Marquard Schwarz of the USA, the medal inscribed OLYMPIC GAMES, ST LOUIS, 1904, HANDICAP, 440 YDS SWIM, MARQUARD SCHWARZ; sold together with three WAAAU 1905 swimming championship medals and one University of Penn. v. M.A.C. swimming medal, undated but of a similar age, all won by Marquard Schwarz (5) Several designs of badge were used for the 1904 games, frequently an existing design was used and a bar reading ''1904 Universal Exposition Olympic Games St. Louis'' was added. Exceptions were the Olympic Handicap games and the Official medal of the Third Olympiad. All events in 1904 were termed ''Olympic''. It is believed that the 1904 Handicap Games medal is the only Olympic prize medal to bear the words ''Olympic Games'' to this day. These medals were awarded to Marquard Schwarz - his Olympic medal is listed in the official report by Spalding (p 231). The name is sometimes misspelled Schwartz. He also competed in the 1906 games at Athens.