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Exceedingly rare official 1968 Mexico City Olympics ‘Type 6’ torch, constructed of steel with a central leather handle and three copper-tone rings, measuring 22.25˝ in length and 7.25˝ at its widest point. The uppermost ring is engraved with the Olympic rings and the date, “31-8-68”; this variation of the ‘Type 6’ torch features a plain copper-tone bowl, whereas other known examples bear the incised inscription “Mexico 68” on the bowl. The torch exhibits expected wear to the steel handle and copper-tone finishes, including rubbing, scuffs, and small dings.
Included with the torch is an uncommon official torchbearer participation medal from the Mexico City 1968 Summer Olympics torch relay, bronze-tone, 50 mm, 63 gm, featuring on the obverse the iconic “Mexico 68” logotype, a lit Olympic torch above the Olympic rings, and pre-Columbian-inspired decorative motifs; the reverse bears raised Spanish text, translated: “Passage of the Olympic Torch Through Spain,” commemorating the relay’s transit through Barcelona during August–September 1968.
The existence of the ‘Type 6’ Olympic torch remained largely unknown until nearly fifty years after the Games, when Olympic researchers identified and authenticated the model through contemporary photographs and archival evidence documenting its emergency introduction during the Spanish leg of the relay. Aside from being the first Olympiad held in a Spanish-speaking nation, the Mexico City Games are notable for producing more relay torch variations than any other Olympic Games—a distinction born not from design ambition, but necessity. The original aluminum-alloy torch (Type 1) proved dangerously hot to handle, prompting successive modifications that introduced amianthus-rope (Type 2) and leather-wrapped (Type 3) grips. Subsequent redesigns addressed additional overheating-related failures, including deformation of the torch top bearing the “Mexico 68” inscription, prompting the introduction of the Type 4 and Type 5 torches.
The creation of the Type 6 torch stemmed from an even more serious concern. During the Spanish leg of the relay, an explosion occurred during a flame-transfer ceremony in Barcelona when Olympian Gregorio Rojo received the Olympic flame from another torchbearer. Although those involved escaped with only minor injuries and the relay resumed shortly thereafter, the incident generated immediate concern among organizers. Contemporary reports attributed the detonation to fuel volatility and the “too-rapid contact of a lighted torch with an unlighted one.” In response, the Spanish Olympic Committee developed a safer and simplified replacement torch for use during portions of the relay in Spain: the now-famous ‘Type 6.’ Further evidence of its adoption survives in the accompanying torch relay medal, which clearly depicts the distinctive Type 6 design.
By the time the flame arrived in Mexico on October 6, having retraced Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World, the relay’s technical difficulties had been resolved. Six days later, on October 12, Mexican Olympian Enriqueta Basilio became the first woman in history to light an Olympic cauldron, concluding a remarkable 13,620-kilometer journey involving 2,778 torchbearers. One of the rarest and most historically significant Olympic torches ever produced, accompanied by its scarce Spanish torch relay participation medal, this is an exceptional museum-quality relic from one of the most innovative and eventful torch relays in Olympic history.
