RIO 2016: There’s a competition that exists at the Olympic Games and you don’t need to be an Olympian to compete.
Enter the world of pin collecting.
The entrance to the Main Press Centre and International Broadcast Centre is not only awash with press and volunteers but pin traders.
And it’s a globe-travelling community. They all know each other.
There’s even an Olympic pin collectors club.
It’s called Olympin.
According to President Don Bigsby, it’s the world’s largest Olympic collectors club.
It’s been “serving Olympic pin collectors since 1982”, said Bigsby.
And all the pin collectors have a story.
John Ioannidis is from Athens. He’s 50 years-old and has been collecting pins since the Games came to his home town in 2004.
He and his wife follow the Games around.
“It’s a hobby for me and I like to visit the Olympic Games. I travel; I trade some pins,” Ioannidis said.
In between Olympic Games he sells pins at his market stall in Athens.
“I have the full Athens Olympic Games set, about 8,000 pins.”
Most pin collectors keep a small collection at home in frames, proudly hanging on their walls.
And it appears to pin fanatics, their collections are priceless.
“A collection would be worth a lot of money. It’s a museum collection,” Ioannidis boasted.
“The best pins are the ones I don’t have. After you take one, you want a new one.
“I bring my old doubles here and trade with people.”
He sits outside the media precinct from early in the morning until the sun goes down.
Harvey Davids, 72, began pin trading in his home town of Calgary in 1988.
“In Calgary I tried to get everything but now I keep between 50 and 100 and put them up on the wall,” Davids said.
He had a collector’s store and says pin trading was just a natural progression.
“If I could figure out what makes a person collect, I’d be a rich man.
“Do I get rich? No. But I get to see the world.
“Anyone who has two or three of a similar item is a collector whether they know it or not.”
At 78, Ross Baxter from Calgary is the oldest pin collector doing the rounds at the Games.
But he certainly doesn’t look his age and believes his travels keeps him young.
“Why? Because I enjoy it,” Baxter said.
Through a thick Scottish accent (yes, he lives in Canada), he says his love of pin collecting began as an Olympic volunteer driver.
“I was standing in the Athletes' Village waiting to pick someone up,” Baxter added.
“You could buy pins for $1 in shops in Calgary; so I just had one. And this guy from Taiwan came up to me and he said, “Change?”
“I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained it to me.
“He said the fun was in changing. So I went and bought another couple of those $1 pins.”
Please note: many pins were exchanged while researching this story.
Sophie Onikul
olympics.com.au
