They may have already won medals in Paris, but American foil fencers Lee Kiefer and Nick Itkin are still locked in an intense competition ... to collect the greatest number of rare Olympic pins.
“I’ve been going hard,” Itkin told NBCOlympics.com in an exclusive interview about his pin-trading game. “I haven’t counted, but I’ve been trying to get the rarest ones. I’ve got some crazy, crazy nice ones.”
For the uninitiated, pins have been around since the 1896 Athens Olympics. What started as a way to identify the athletes has grown into a tradition that brings together everyone in the Olympic Village. Pins are made by different countries, sports, sponsors, media, and even some athletes and celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Simone Biles.
Itkin hasn’t counted how many pins he’s traded so far, but he knows what pins he’s after. In the beginning, he went for low-hanging fruit: pins from large, popular delegations such as Canada and France. As his stock of pins left to trade dwindled, he realized he needed to be more selective.
“I’ve been trying to get the rarest ones,” Itkin said.
Some of his rarest so far? Pins from Suriname, which is represented by five athletes, and Tuvalu, which qualified only two competitors. They are among the smallest delegations competing in Paris.
Despite the rare pulls, Kiefer appears to be far ahead of Itkin.
“She’s killing me,” Itkin said. Kiefer said that she has at least 50 pins, more than the amount Itkin started with. He knew that, in order to compete with Kiefer, he needed to load up on more pins. While there’s nowhere to buy more of his original pins, Itkin still has a plan.
“They give us a bag of pins when we first check in,” Itkin said of how he received his original set of pins. “I think my dad’s not gonna use his pins, so hopefully I can get a little cheat code and maybe take some of his pins.”
Itkin’s father, Misha Itkin, received pins because he’s a fencing coach on Team USA.
It doesn't seem like the two are on an even playing field. Kiefer, who is using pins from her husband (and Itkin’s teammate) Gerek Meinhardt, has another plan to keep the advantage.
“My plan is to hang out with [Nick], and when I see him trying to make a move, I'm just gonna swipe in in front of him, because I'm way cuter than him. And so people would obviously trade with me before him,” Kiefer said. “And Gerek is gonna just box him out a little bit with his elbow to his throat if he’s really getting past him.”
“We’re serious, okay?” Kiefer added about the pin collecting competition.
“We’re a team, [Lee] just holds on to them so that we can make sure we don’t have duplicates and we know what countries we’re going after,” Meinhardt said.
“And so we can beat Nick, most importantly.” Kiefer added.
NBCOlympics.com may have interfered with their competition. Kiefer started scheming after she and Meinhardt were notified of Itkin’s plan to use his dad’s pins.
“Maybe I’ll call Misha now and ask for his pins instead,” Kiefer said. Meinhardt quipped that Misha Itkin would likely give them to her instead of to his son.
“Oh, definitely,” Itkin chimed in from the background after overhearing the interview.
Regardless of who ends up with Misha's pins, Itkin is just stoked to be part of the pin trading experience.
“One of the really cool pins I traded was on the [Opening Ceremony] boat with some of the basketball players I’d watch every day,” Itkin said. “They were super into it, too. So that was really cool, just to trade pins with them.”
“Some of the 3-on-3 players [on the women’s basketball team were] also trying to collect every single one, so I got the women’s 3-on-3 and USA basketball from Derrick White. He was the one who was super excited about it,” Itkin recounted.
Pin trading is one of the main icebreakers in the Olympic Village.
“[Athletes] just stop you and say, ‘Let’s trade pins, let’s trade pins,’” Itkin said. “It’s cool to see all these different athletes from all over the world.”
“It’s just amazing to see what sport can do,” Itkin said. “It’s just a crazy environment where that’s just normal here. No matter where you’re from or who you are, you’re out there competing in your sport.”