Historic 1960 Rome Paralympics Bronze Medal – Israel's First-Ever Basketball Team Medal

An irreplaceable monument to Israeli sporting history and a museum-tier national treasure.

This original bronze winner's prize medal represents the absolute dawn of Israel’s international athletic legacy. It was awarded to a member of the pioneering Israeli delegation at the historic 1960 International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome, the legendary event retroactively recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as the First Official Paralympic Games in history.

Competing in the Wheelchair Basketball (Team Event, Class A) tournament, the Israeli squad secured a monumental podium finish. This historic bronze marks the very first team medal ever won by the State of Israel on the global Paralympic stage.

📜 The Historic 1960 Israeli Squad Roster

While individual medals from this foundational tournament were issued without athlete name engravings, this exceptionally rare physical artifact belonged to one of the five heroic founding members of the Israeli Class A team who triumphed in Rome:

• Zvi Ben-Zvi (Legendary Israeli sports pioneer)

• Moshe Feld

• Aharon Kirschner

• Simcha Lustig

• Naftali Rosman

🔍 Historical Scarcity & Importance

• Inaugural Era Rarity: With only an estimated 400 athletes from 23 nations participating in the entire 1960 Rome Games, surviving winner medals are extraordinarily scarce.

• Institutional Class: Most sibling medals from this tournament reside permanently in private family estates or heritage archives, such as the National Paralympic Heritage Centre in the United Kingdom.

• Research File: Accompanied by archive printouts, historical team photographs and the 1960 Israeli squad roster.

📊 Technical Specifications

• Event: International Stoke Mandeville Games (The 1st Paralympic Games), Rome 1960

• Discipline: Wheelchair Basketball (Team Event, Class A)

• Placement: Bronze (3rd Place)

• Material: Solid Bronze

• Obverse Text: “Giochi Internazionali di Stoke Mandeville, Roma 1960”

• Reverse Text: “Stoke Mandeville International Games 1960”

• Condition: Very Fine (VF). Features an exceptional, untouched rich vintage bronze patina with sharp strike details. Please review the gallery photographs carefully.