Winner’s medal awarded to Aleksandr Silayev as runner-up in the C-1 1000 metres canoeing event at the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics. Silver, 68 mm, 104 gm, by Giuseppe Cassioli. The medal is set in a bronze laurel wreath intended for necklace display, with the name of the sport engraved below, “Canoa”; the chain is no longer present. The front of the medal shows Victory, holding a laurel wreath and palm branch, seated high above the Coliseum, with raised text, “Giochi Della XVII Olimpiade, Roma MCMLX”; the reverse features a victorious athlete with palm branch being carried by other athletes, the stadium visible in the background. Accompanied by a letter of provenance from the daughter of the winning medalist, in part: “My father—Aleksandr Silayev, Russia (back then Soviet Union) won Olympic Silver Medal in 1960 Rome Summer Olympics for Canoeing.” Also accompanied by several photos of Silayev as an older man, and a related Russian newsletter.
The 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome hosted a septet of sprint canoe racing events at the beautiful Lake Albano at the foot of Monte Cavo. The field for the C-1 1000 consisted of the world’s top twenty-two canoeists, including Hungary’s Janos Parti, the US’s Frank Havens, and Romania’s Leon Rotman, the event’s defending Olympic champion. Silayev, a gold medalist at the 1958 European Games, cruised through his first heat and into the semi-finals where he outlasted Czechoslovakia’s Tibor Polakovic. In the finals, Silayev pushed ahead of Rotman but was ultimately unable to overcome Parti for the gold, crossing the finish line with a silver medal time of 4:34.41. A phenomenal winner’s medal enhanced furthermore by its stellar provenance.
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