1972 SAPPORO WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES TORCH USED IN RELAY (EXTREMELY RARE)

Offered here is an official 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympic Games torch, one of the rarest torches to surface in the market. Designed by Munemichi Yanagi and manufactured by Nippon Koki, the rather simplistic look features a cast-blackened aluminum alloy bowl (8.5” tall, 5” in diameter) with a long stainless steel flame tube (21” long). The 1972 Sapporo Olympic emblem with “SAPPORO 72” appears on both the bowl and tube at the bottom ends. When inserted into the bowl, the tube’s emblem is hidden inside the bowl and the torch measures 25 inches long overall.  At the top of the flame tube is a cap to cover where the Olympic flame burned. This torch was used during the relay, as the light black spotting on the tube attests. The bowl shows a few nicks and knacks but remains in great shape, the Olympic emblem perfectly visible as well as the “YANAGI” and “NIKKEI” stamps on the very bottom. The Olympic flame was lit in Olympia and flown to Okinawa for the relay across Japan, which lasted 38 days and covered just under 19,000 km. There were an estimated 16,300 torchbearers and almost all of them shared a torch. It has been well documented that only around 100 of these torches exist, making it a remarkable find for one’s collection.