Lot 30155A – 1924 Chamonix gold medal awarded to Alfred Schläppi, member of the Swiss four-man bobsleigh team

1924 Chamonix gold medal awarded to Alfred Schläppi, member of the Swiss four-man bobsleigh team, in its original presentation box along with Schläppi’s participant’s diploma (framed), Swiss team Olympic Ring stick pin, his Olympic ID card, his Swiss S.L.L./A.N.E.P. ID booklet, official programme for the awards (Palmarès) (missing covers).

Medal: Created by the engraver Raoul Bénard and minted at the Monnaie de Paris, the obverse the medal shows an athlete raising their arms in a sign of victory, holding a pair of skis and a pair of skates, with a mountain silhouette in the background. The reverse bears an inscription on fourteen lines: « Chamonix / Mont-Blanc / sports d’hiver / 25 janvier – 5 février 1924 / organisés / par le / Comité Olympique français / sous le haut patronage / du Comité / International Olympique / à l’occasion / de la célébration / de la / VIIIe Olympiade », in gilt silver and marked on the edge with the hallmark of the Monnaie de Paris and « 2 SILVER », weighing 77 grams.

Condition: Rim nicks, original patina.

Provenance: Acquired by the current owner directly from the Schläppi family.

Rarity: According to the official medal count, only 33 first place gold winner’s medals were awarded. Several of which certainly now reside in institutional collections. This example being one of the very few in private hands with the provenance and documentation of who it was awarded to.

Participant’s diploma: 55.5x35cm, with design by Plumereau and printing by Debar in brown, green and white, showing skier in front of mountainous scenery with awards legend showing printed signatures of the President of the International Olympic Committee, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, and the President of the French Olympic Committee, Count Justinien de Clary, with awards legend at right showing manuscript « Mr A. Schläppi de l’equipe suisse 1er du Turnoi de Bobsleigh ».

The lot also includes 7 real photo postcards and 3 press photos of the team, 3 newspapers/magazines from February 1924 and some modern newspaper clippings and a book. It also includes a letter from Scherrer, the captain of the bobsleigh team.

The Story: Eduard Scherrer entered a local raffle at his gymnastics club in his home village of Leysin in the early 1920s, and won a bobsleigh in the draw. He persuaded his friends Alfred Schläppi, Heinrich Schläppi and Alfred Neveu to drive down the road from Leysin to Le Sépey with him, to the amusement of the villagers. When they registered for the Swiss qualifiers for the winter sports week in Chamonix, it was more of a joke, but to their own surprise, they won and were accepted into the Swiss team. They drove to Chamonix as rank outsiders.

Nine teams from five nations entered the competition, which like today, involved four runs held over the two days. France, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland each had two teams, with Belgium’s solitary quartet completing the field. An electronic timekeeper, capable of measuring to the nearest hundredth of a second, was used at the event. Scherrer was captain of the Switzerland I bob and was accompanied by Neveu and the Schläppi brothers. They went on to set a new track record at Pèlerins and take the gold medal with an aggregate time of 5:45.54, well ahead of Great Britain II (5:48.83) and Belgium I (6:02.29). Remarkably, Chamonix 1924 would represent this team’s one and only Olympic adventure. Although the Schläppi brothers would later chair the organising committee for the 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz. (Ref: olympics.com)

Speaking to Roger Félix as part of the “Avant-première sportive” program, Alfred Schläppi, 75, talked about the Chamonix feat: “We were four gymnasts from Leysin…It was a 1650 meter track, there were 23 turns. We took 1’22” to get it down. I was 4th, brakeman, but I never needed to use the brakes. If he needed to, the captain could brake. I never needed to use them. »