Secure Your Legacy at The Olympic Museum

22 | 10 | 2019

The Olympic Museum is calling on Olympians who competed at Games prior to 1984 to donate Olympic clothing and sports equipment to its Olympic Heritage collection in Lausanne.

Olympians are the greatest asset of the Olympic Movement and preserving their stories and artefacts for future generations is vitally important. The Olympic Museum collections comprise more than 70,000 artefacts collected over the course of 120 years. The Olympic Museum exhibits sports gear worn by great champions such as Jesse Owens, Emil Zatopek, Cathy Freeman, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Ben Ainslie and Simone Biles. It exists through the generosity of Olympians.

TYasmin Meichtry, Head of Heritage at the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage said: “Our collections prior to 1984 are rather limited, as that is when the IOC started to collect objects on site at the Olympic Games. We need Olympians to help us fill in these gaps. 

“By donating to the Olympic Museum, Olympians can safeguard the proper preservation of their equipment and ensure that their incredible stories will remain a part of Olympic legend and be shared with upcoming generations.

“All items donated stand as a witness of time and a symbol of the Olympic ideals and values that we can use to inspire through the cultural and educational programmes we run at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and throughout the world.”

Olympians are invited to donate a piece of clothing or sports equipment that has been used in competition during an Olympic Games, preferably pre 1984.

YThe following objects are sought:

• Sport clothing, accessories and / or equipment worn / used during Olympic competitions, such as sport outfits, spikes, gloves, helmets, rackets, fencing swords, skis, etc
• National kits worn during the athletes parade or victory ceremonies
• Personal mascots and lucky charms that have followed the Olympians during their sport career

All donations will be officially recognised by a diploma signed by IOC President Thomas Bach OLY and used for memory purposes only.

Should you wish to contribute please contact: patricia.reymond@olympic.org or stephanie.knecht@olympic.org

For more information about The Olympic Museum, please visit https://www.olympic.org/museum/