The crown jewels of Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium

Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium has been endowed with its own crown jewels, as befits the sports temple built for the 1928 Games. They're the ten top pieces from a wide-ranging collection of historic sports paraphernalia including Olympic medals, torches, shirts, spikes and bikes.

The Amsterdam crown jewels will be exhibited in the Olympic Experience, the interactive sports museum within the stadium grounds. The Dutch capital organised the Olympics of 1928 and is hoping to do so again in 2028.

The top ten
There is a selection of pictures below. The full inventory of Amsterdam's Olympic Crown Jewels reads as follows:

Bronze medal of the Dutch football eleven (Stockholm, 1912)
Tandem bike on which Bernard Leene and Daan van Wijk won gold (Amsterdam, 1928)
Jersey worn by legendary Finnish athlete and gold medalist Paavo Nurmi (Amsterdam, 1928)
One of the three gold medals won by swimmer Rie Mastenbroek, "the Empress of Berlin" (1936)
Spikes worn by Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen, "the flying housewife", on which she won four gold medals (London, 1948)
Judo costume of Anton Geesink, the first non-Japanese to win gold in the all-category class (Tokyo, 1964)
Racing bike which belonged to 1980 Tour de France winner Joop Zoetemelk, who also won Olympic gold in the team time trials (Mexico, 1968)
Yvonne van Gennip's threefold gold-yielding skates (Calgary, 1988)
Time trial bicycle used by quadruple Olympic champion Leontien van Moorsel. She rode this one at the 2004 Athens Games.
No. 10: the 46-metre Marathon Tower outside the Olympic Stadium (1928)

International heritage Some of the pieces were loaned by relatives of the athletes, such as the bronze medal awarded to centre forward Cees ten Cate, which was presented by his grandson. Other objects are from private collections, like Yvonne van Gennip's skates and Leontien van Moorsel's racing bike. The permanent exhibition is part of a project which aims to mount similar shows at all other existing Olympic stadiums, in order to present an overview of the world's international sporting heritage.