Playing Cards Of The Olympic Games

Kishor Gordhandas

28 July 2008, 18:35

In ancient times, Hercules, the strongest of all men, challenged his four brothers to a race before the Gods in the fields of Olympia to set the stage for the beginning of the ancient games. The recorded date was 776 BC, a time when the Greeks marked their calendars in four-year periods called Olympiads. The Games, which took the character of a festival of sports, were held continuously for almost 1,200 years. During the Olympics, Peace ruled all over Greece. The athletes who won were hailed as heroes and often elevated to the status of royalty in their home towns.

Athletes usually competed nude. They originally wore shorts but, according to one ancient writer, Pausanias, a competitor deliberately lost his shorts so that he could run more freely during the race in 720 BC, and clothing was then abolished. At its peak during the 4th century BC, the Olympic Festival drew crowds not only for the Peloponnesian Peninsula but from colonies as far away as Libya and Egypt. Poets and other writers recited spontaneously, sculptors worked on statues while surrounded by spectators; vendors sold food from the stalls, traders from throughout the peninsula sold horses.

Women were not allowed to watch the games, but that had nothing to do with the nudity of the male athletes. Rather, it was because Olympia was dedicated to God Zeus and was therefore a sacred area for men. The chariot races, which were held outside the sacred precinct, were open to women spectators. Travelling to Olympia took on the nature of pilgrimage, which attracted some of the greatest names of Greece’s classic period. Plato attended the festival when he was seventy. Demosthenes, Diogenes the cynic, Pythagoras, and others all visited at one time or another.
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In 393 AD, The Roman Emperor Theodosius declared the Games corrupt and ended them. Centuries of earthquakes and floods buried Olympia and the Temple of Zeus until 1870 when German excavators unearthed the beauty and magnificent statues of the classical Greek Games. These archaeological findings in the sacred ground of Olympia fascinated Baron Pierre de Coubertin so much that he was inspired to conceive the idea of reviving the modern Olympic Games.

On June 23, 1894, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris to a gathering of International sports leaders from nine nations, he proposed that the ancient Games be revived on an International scale. The idea was enthusiastically received and the Modern Olympics, as we know them, were born.

The first Olympiad was celebrated two years later in Athens, where an estimated 245 athletes (all men) from 14 nations competed in the ancient Panathenaicon stadium before large and ardent crowds. Americans won nine of the 12 track and field events, but the Greece won the most medals with 47. The highlight was the victory by native peasant Spiros Louis in the first marathon race, which was run over the same course covered by the Greek hero Pheidippides after the battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

The Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Berlin in 1916, were cancelled because of what came to be known as the World War I. The 1940 Summer and Winter Olympic Games first scheduled to be held in Japan, then awarded to Helsinki, Finland and lastly Germany, were cancelled due to the World War II. The Summer Olympic Games scheduled for London, Great Britain, and the Winter Olympic Games scheduled for Cortina D’ampezzo, Italy in 1944, were also cancelled because of the World War II.
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In the Summer of 1996, the world came together in Atlanta, Georgia, USA to participate in the Centennial celebration of the modern Olympic Games. In Summer of 2000, the world came together in Sydney, Australia, for the Millennium celebration of the modern Olympic games. For more than a hundred years since the games began in 1896 in Athens, Greece, the Olympic Spirit has stood for more than victory of the athletes. It is a triumph of humanity as well as the most perfect demonstration of brotherhood, camaraderie and goodwill this planet has ever seen.

Featured here, on several of the attached pictures of Olympic Playing Cards, is the art work reminiscent of historical Olympic Games moments that are etched upon our minds forever. Several non-standard commemorative playing cards have been manufactured by various countries such as Italy, USA, Spain, Great Britain, Japan, China, Holland and others. Soon after the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games were over and the venue for the 2000 Year Olympic Games was awarded to Sydney, Australia, the United Kingdom brought out a scenic playing cards pack with 54 different colourful scenes of Australia on the face cards. The back design had the Australian Flag on the top with the Olympic logo in the middle and the name Australia at the bottom. The two side borders are diagonal short stripes of the five colours of the Olympic Logo.

A very interesting and informative pack of cards called the Centennial Olympic Games Playing cards made by United States Playing Cards Co., USA, shows the Olympic games right from its inception, in the year 1896. It contains custom card faces depicting nostalgic logos, posters and mascots from the Olympic Games between the years 1896 and 1996. Here the Ace of spades shows Atlanta where the 1996 Games were played and Athens, Greece, 1896 is shown on the 2 of Spades. The back design of this pack is also the same image of Athens, Greece, as on the Two of Spades.

There are also following two interesting Playing Cards made for the Olympic Games of 1976 at Montreal, Canada. One of these is of the Poker size and shows 53 standard faces with large indices. All the backs of these 53 cards are different and show various events of the 1976 Olympic games played at Montreal. There is a Calendar of one week shown on the back of each card (52 weeks). This particular pack is known as “Calendar Playing Cards” and was issued in the year 1980. Such Calendar packs with various themes like ‘Horoscopes’, ‘History of Packaging’, ‘Inventions’, ‘Postage Stamps’ ‘Games and pass times’ etc., have been made during the last more than 20 years. And each of these Calendar packs is a collector’s item.
Olympic Games cycling.jpg
These decks are not for sale in the market and it is very difficult to acquire each year’s deck. I have some 13 to 15 of these decks in my collection. These packs of cards were manufactured by Waddingtons Playing Cards Company, Leeds, England.

Another of these two packs mentioned earlier, showing again the 54 events for the year 1976 Olympic held at Montreal, is a Limited Edition of 4000 Twin Packs. These packs were brought out by Stanley Gibbons Antiquarian of England. Each of the event is hand drawn, in black and white and printed on Biege colour background. This pack was also issued in the year 1980, by Waddingtons Ltd, UK.

A few other interesting Playing Cards issued on the occasion of various Olympic Games are as follows:


Olympics Weight Lifter.jpg

Two very special and beautiful Centennial Olympic Games: MICROMINI Playing Cards collection sets were produced by the United States Playing Card Company, USA, and printed in China, in the year 1996. One set is the Centennial Olympic Summer Games consisting of 24 packs and the other set is the Centennial Olympic Winter Games consisting of 17 packs. These two limited edition collector’s sets celebrate the glory of the first 100 years of the modern Olympic era with authentic, historical artwork from 1896 to the present. Exclusive MicroMini Playing Card decks feature individual posters, logos and pictograms of Historical Olympic Winter and Summer Games on the packages and the card backs. Each deck measures 1-3/8” X 1-7/8” and features a different Olympic design. The decks are packaged in a custom leatherette case with gold accents.

There have been many earlier packs on Olympic Games manufactured by various companies and in many countries. Not in my collection are many older packs, one of which is 1928 Olympics, published for the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. All the courts show various sport participants. It has gold corners and the back features flag and the five Olympic Rings.

Many of the playing cards mentioned above/pictured alongside are probably as precious to some as the medals given at the games! I am very sure for the 2008 Olympic Games to be played in Beijing, China from 8th August to 24th August, some nice and unusual playing cards related to these Olympic Games will also be manufactured, just like several Olympic Games and many Football Playing Cards were brought out on the occasion of the World Cup Football match in mid-1998, and 2002.

Comment

  1. I have a set of the micromini summer games in excellent conditon. If I were to sell this colleciton, what price should I ask?

    thank you

    — Debbie · Aug 3, 17:28 · #

  2. My question is the same, but I do want to sell them. No maybe about it.
    Any suggestions would be very nice.
    Thank you

    — Laura · Dec 10, 15:41 · #

  3. i have a set never been open still in the box wrip it start 1924 till 1994 is it worth anything

    — cheta · Feb 2, 18:04 · #

  4. i have a set of 1980 olympic calendar cards from moscow – lenin stadium …what would you suggest the value would be now – they are open but never used and are perfect still in the red calendar card holder.
    thanks in anticipation of your response

    — Mark Utley · Mar 22, 12:03 · #

  5. I have 8 sets of playing cards (unopened) from the 1984 Olympics. They came together in a brown box with the words “Games of the XXIIIrd Olympial Los Angeles 1984.” Do they have any value?

    — Elyse Levy · Jan 21, 11:59 · #

  6. I have an unopened 1996 Centennial Micromini Playing Card set with album. How much is it worth? Is it worth putting up for my kids?

    — Nicole Allen · Jun 28, 13:05 · #

  7. I have an unopened 1996 Centennial Micromini playing card set, with 17 micromini decks, a album, and a nice limited edition case. How much is it worth? Should I sell it or keep it to pass on to my kids?

    — Cameron W.C.P · Jul 18, 08:49 · #

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