CHICAGO, United States – An Olympic torch carried by decathlon champion Bruce Jenner – now known as Caitlyn – ahead of the 1984 Summer Games will go under the hammer this month, auctioneers said Tuesday, July 7.
Advertisement
The item, expected to be sold for at least $20,000, is the first major piece in Jenner’s memorabilia to be auctioned. Heritage Auction will handle the sale at its Platinum Night Sports Auction.
The auction comes weeks after Jenner confirmed his gender shift from male to female.
“This torch serves as a wonderful symbol that masculinity and femininity are not mutually exclusive”, Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions, said, according to the AP. Bob Lorsch, a philanthropist and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, put the torch for auction. He organized both Lake Tahoe and Jenner’s participation in the torch event, and ultimately passed the torch to Jenner for the final 1,000-meter stretch.
At the time, Jenner was eight years removed from winning the Gold Medal in the 1976 Olympic decathlon, but was still widely considered one of America’s greatest athletes. Seven kilometers of the 50-kilometer Nevada leg were run by individuals, 42 went to local organizations and Jenner finished out the relay and carried the torch to the Nevada-California border.
“Ceasars saw it as a tremendous opportunity…to do something more special”, said Lorsch, “never realizing that we would be creating what is truly a piece of history that originated as a piece of sports history, then evolved as a piece of entertainment history through the Kardashian legacy and becoming a cultural phenomenon through the transition to Caitlyn”. Before the torch run, she reportedly told People, “I can’t stand running”.
Jenner, 65, made her public debut as Caitlyn Jenner last month in an article in Vanity Fair.
Advertisement
A spokesman for Jenner didn’t respond to a request for comment.
