Rare Silver Olympic Champion Felix Adolf Schmal Cup

Olympic & Jewish Interest - Rare Silver Olympic Cycling Champion Felix Adolf Schmal Cup, Circa 1896.
Of circular tapering form depicting Felix Adolf Schmal holding a laurel above his head, standing next to his bicycle and the rest of the cyclists are advancing towards him.
Schmal's figure is carefully executed with a mustache and a Star of David to his chest (Schmal was Jewish).

Felix Adolf Schmal competed in the first modern summer Olympic Games at Athens 1896, he won the gold medal in the 12 hours cycling race.
The beaker is marked with German silver marks (800, half moon and crown) and with Austrian import marks of 1891-1901.
Height: 8cm / 3.15in.
Top diameter: 6cm / 2.36in.


Felix Adolf Schmal (18 September 1872 - 28 August 1919) was an Austrian fencer and racing cyclist.
He was born in Dortmund and died in Salzburg.
He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Schmal competed in the 333 metres, 10 kilometres, 100 kilometres, and 12 hours races in cycling.
His best result was in the 12 hours race, where he covered 314.997 kilometres in the time allotted to outdistance the only other finisher by a single lap of the track (Frederick Keeping covered 314.664 kilometres).
Schmal also did well in the 333 metres and the 10 kilometres, finishing third in each race.
He originally tied with Stamatios Nikolopoulos in the shorter race, both placing second with a time of 26.0 seconds.
This led to a race-off between the two, which Schmal lost by 1.2 seconds as he finished in 26.6 seconds.
He was among the seven cyclists that did not finish the 100 kilometres.
Schmal also competed in the sabre event in the fencing tournament.
He did not do well, defeating only Georgios Iatridis while losing to Ioannis Georgiadis, Telemachos Karakalos, and Holger Nielsen to place fourth out of five.
Schmal's son, Adolf Schmal, Jr., competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics.