b'14810261026GOLD, FIRST PLACE WINNERS MEDAL awarded to Australias ANTHONY Tippy MARCHANTin the 2000m Tandem Cycling Final;51mm diameter; designed by Giuseppi Cassioli, minted by K.G. Luke, in the original plastic case with XVIth OLYMPIAD / (Olympic Rings) / MELBOURNE / 1956 sticker on top;The medal in superb condition and extremely rare. Marchants co-winner was Ian Joey Browne (1931 - 2023).Marchant first teamed up with Ian Browne at the start of 1956, just ten months before the start of the Melbourne Olympics. The older Browne selected Marchant because of the pure speed that Marchant had exhibited in the past year. They were a contrasting pair. Marchant was a short man of 170cm (5.6 ft) and 65 kg (143 lb), while Browne stood at 186cm (6.10 ft) and 86 kg (190 lb), unusually tall for a cyclist. For a final test run before the pair formally committed to racing together, they simply had a few tandem sprints around the track. Browne sat in the front seat, while Marchant sat in the rear seat. They went on to win the 2000m tandem event at the Australian Championships in 1956, but going into the Melbourne Olympics, nobody, themselves included, regarded them as realistic medal chances. However, their mentor, former champion Billy Guyatt, convinced them that they had the potential to make progress at international level.Their training schedule consisted of individual training two or three times a week and two days a week of coordinated tandem training during the Olympic year. Marchants main tactical responsibility was to look to the outside for impending attacks while Browne patrolled the inside. Marchant devised a signal system, such as a head bump on Brownes hip, or even a verbal shout when the opposition made a move. $30,00040,000'