Caitlyn Jenner’s Olympic Torch Headed to Auction
The 1984 Olympic torch Caitlyn Jenner carried through Lake Tahoe, Nevada en route to the summer games in Los Angeles will head to auction where it could sell for over $20,000, The Associated Press reports.
The brass torch will hit the block at Heritage Auctions‘ Platinum Night Sports Auction in Chicago on July 30th. The seller is Bob Lorsch, a philanthropist and entrepreneur from Los Angeles who in 1984 helped re-route the torch relay through Lake Tahoe and tapped Jenner to carry it the final 1,000 meters.
The Lake Tahoe leg of the relay had been orchestrated by Lorsch and Caesars Tahoe as a way of giving back to the community and promoting local youth programs. 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.
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. Before the torch run, she reportedly told People, “I can’t stand running. And anyway, I know people will laugh at me when they see my knees. But it’s for a good cause, so I’ll do it.”
According to Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage, the torch marks the first significant piece of Jenner memorabilia to go to auction, and certainly the first major artifact since her transition from Bruce to Caitlyn Jenner earlier this year.
In April, Jenner came out as a transgender woman during an interview with Diane Sawyer, and later appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair‘s July issue, garnering heaps of praise and support. She will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award on July 15th at this year’s ESPY Awards, while her new E! series I Am Cait premieres July 26th.