The Olympic gold medals won by Cuban jumper Iván Pedroso and sports shooting athlete Leuris Pupo were sold for more than $ 70,000 each at a recent auction.
Boston-based auction house RR Auction posted the final price of each medal on its website.
Pupo’s, won at the London Olympics in 2012, sold for $ 73,205, and Pedroso’s, Sydney 2000, was the group’s second highest-grossing with a total of $ 71,335.
Leuris Pupo surprisingly won the gold medal in the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol category in what were his fourth Olympics, he had already debuted years ago at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Meanwhile, Iván Pedroso, who was a four-time world champion and won five indoor world titles, won his first and only Olympic gold medal in Sydney 2000, after a memorable final.
The silver medals of Cuban wrestlers Yasmany Lugo and Juan Luis Maren also participated in the auction. Maren, who won three Olympic medals throughout her career, sold for $ 11,251, being the ninth best-selling item. The one in Lugo does not appear as sold.
A source close to the bookmaker stated in the newspaper Around the rings that the former owner of the Pupo and Pedroso Olympic medals “is a longtime Olympic collector who has decided to sell the medals in the auction house’s current bid.”