IX Winter Olympics pin from the 1964 Innsbruck Games

IX Winter Olympics pin from the 1964 Innsbruck Games. Olympic pin collecting began as early as 1900 and gained momentum at the 1936 Games. Through the 1960s pin trading was on the upswing but really took off at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games with sponsor's becoming more prevalent. Coca-Cola set up a pin trading area at the Calgary Games which gave a boost to the hobby which is still a big part of the Olympic experience.

The 1964 Winter Olympic Games, also known as the Games of the IX Olympiad were held in Innsbruck, Austria and included 36 countries, 892 men and 199 women athletes participating. This particular year Innsbruck suffered from a lack of snow forcing the Austrian army to transport ice blocks for the bobsled and luge runs and snow for the Alpine events from surrounding mountains. There were political issues surrounding these Games as South Africa was not allowed to compete due to its Apartheid policy and despite the creation of the Berlin Wall in 1961, East and West Germany still competed as the United Team of Germany. The once dominate US figure skating team had been killed in a plane crash three years before so the US team was still rebuilding although computers were used in scoring the figure skating events for the first-time providing scores almost instantly. The Soviet Union won the medal count with 25 with the United States earning 7 medals.

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