Bigsby formed Olympin in 1982 after the Lake Placid Winter Olympics with a group of fellow pin collectors.

The company has grown significantly since and currently boasts more than 600 members worldwide in over 30 countries, and claims to be the oldest active pin club in the world.

"Receiving the Samaranch Award is a wonderful honour for me," Bigsby told insidethegames.

"I will never forget it.

"The real reward for me in my Olympic collecting hobby has been the many friends from all over the world that I've met along the way."

Also honoured in the awards was Jaroslav Petrasek, of the Czech Republic, who was active in leading Olympic philately worldwide as well as in his homeland.

Donald Mackay-Coghill of Australia (pictured below, on right alongside Bigsby, centre, and Petrasek) was given an accolade for developing and leading initiatives to bring coin collecting to the general public.

The China Post Group was recognised for developing and promoting Olympic collecting in China, host nation of the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics.

Samaranch's son, Juan Antonio Jr, who is also an IOC member, presented the awards to the winners at a ceremony in Lausanne.

The accolades, introduced by the IOC this year to recognise those who have made significant contributions to Olympic pin collecting at all levels, is named after the organisation's late former President (pictured top).


Samaranch, who left the IOC in 2001, helped reform the organisation in the aftermath of the Salt Lake City bid scandal, making way for current incumbent Jacques Rogge.

The Spaniard was the second-longest serving President of the IOC after the founder of the Modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, and played a key part in its financial growth.

He was also a keen Olympic collector, and introduced programmes encouraging the collection and study of Olympic stamps, coins and memorabilia during his time at the helm of the IOC.

Olympic pin collecting has become a particularly popular hobby at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, taking off in the 1980s under Samaranch, although the activity has been around as long as 100 years.

Before the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994, some 10 million pins were sold before the Games had even started.

"I congratulate the winners of this prestigious award and thank them for their active and enthusiastic support of Olympic collecting and, through this, the Olympic Movement itself," said Rogge.

"Olympic collectors are the unofficial custodians of a vast amount of Olympic history.

"Olympic stamps, coins and other memorabilia all tell their own stories about the Olympic Games and thereby help to produce, in an easily accessible and visual manner, a different kind of understanding of the Olympic Movement."

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