The first handover was from Vikelas to Coubertin in 1896.
100 Years of Handing Over the Keys in Lausanne
by Philip Barker
On Monday, Kirsty Coventry is set to receive the keys to Olympic House in a ceremony which will formally begin her time as International Olympic Committee (IOC) President.
It is 100 years since a formal handover and welcome first took place in Lausanne to usher in a new Olympic leader.
Before that, the only previous Presidential change had taken place in 1896 when Dimetrios Vikelas, a Greek, handed over office to Baron Pierre de Coubertin after the first Games of the modern era in Athens.
It was Coubertin who established Olympic headquarters in Lausanne in 1915.
When he stood down in 1925, the election took place in May at the IOC Session held in Prague, but the official handover did not occur until September.
The new President Comte Henri Baillet-Latour was accompanied by Coubertin and Baron Godefroy de Blonay of Switzerland.
They were received by Lausanne Syndic (Mayor) Paul Rosset and Jules Dufour, President of the Council of State for Vaud.
In Berne, Swiss President Jean-Marie Musy and Vice President Henri Haeberlin also gave a lunch in honour of the new Olympic leader.
Baillet Latour remained President until his death in 1942.
As war raged, Sweden’s Johannes Sigfrid Edstrom, the senior IOC Vice President, assumed the de facto leadership of the movement but was not officially confirmed as President until the 1946 IOC Session in Lausanne.
At this gathering, Lausanne Syndic Pierre Graber paid tribute to Coubertin’s work in establishing the city as Olympic headquarters and Rudolph Rabbatel, President of the Vaud Council of State also addressed the members.
Edstrom was already in his 76th year and only remained at the helm until 1952.
The American multi-millionaire Avery Brundage was elected to succeed him at the IOC Session in Helsinki.
Almost a fortnight after the Games closed, Edstrom and Brundage travelled to Lausanne for an official handover Ceremony.
They were joined by IOC Vice President Armand Massard of France, and a group including other IOC members, International Federation members and Swiss Olympic Committee (SOC) President Marcel Henninger and Secretary Jean Weymann.
The party was welcomed by Graber and Albert Von Der Aa on behalf of the municipality of Lausanne.
“This election is very appropriate because of the fact that all the former Presidents have been Europeans. Now we have elected a President who belongs to another continent of the Western hemisphere. This comes to show that the Olympic Movement has become an International Movement,” said Edstrom.
“I am glad that he is present here today to relieve me of my great responsibilities of
President. I am now handing him the key which symbolizes the duties and responsibilities which he is now assuming. May he keep this Olympic Key preciously, (sic) and discharge his difficult task with wisdom, patience and fortitude.”
Brundage’s Presidency was characterised by his staunch defence of amateur sport.
He made his position clear at the handover ceremony.
“The Olympic Games are a success because they are strictly amateur and because they are completely independent and the Olympic movement owes allegiance to no superior force. It is concerned only with sport and it recognises no higher power, political or commercial,” Brundage declared .
A month later, Santa Barbara Mayor Norris Montgomery proclaimed “Avery Brundage Day” with a banquet at the Montecito Country Club in honour of the new President.
Over the next 20 years Brundage polarised many in the Olympic movement with his unbending stance on the amateur question and his attitude to many other pressing political questions.
He did not stand down from the leadership until his 85th year.
By this time, the IOC had moved to the Château de Vidy and it was here that Brundage returned the key to Lausanne Syndic Georges-André Chevallaz.
“You have known how to steer the Olympic ship with a steady hand. During this difficult journey, you have met hazards, dangers and even pirate ships,” Chevallaz said as he presented Brundage with some wine from the region as a memento.
It was a gathering which featured past, present and future Presidents because Juan Antonio Samaranch, then IOC Head of Protocol was also present when the key was passed on to the Irish peer Lord Killanin.
“Here is the key which is heavy. Very heavy. But we will assist you in your work by providing a haven of tranquility, which represents the Château de Vidy,” Chevallaz told the new President.
“I dare to hope that the weight of my responsibilities will never be as heavy as this key,“ Killanin responded.
It proved a vain hope as his eight years at the helm were plagued by major problems with two host cities and serious boycotts at both Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980.
Events had clearly taken their toll on Killanin who stood down after Moscow.
Little more than two days after the Closing Ceremony, he handed the keys to his successor Samaranch at Château de Vidy under the Olympic Rings.
Samaranch hosted Lausanne Syndic Patrick Delamuraz for what was described as a “friendly dinner.” As he toasted the host city of the Olympic Movement, Samaranch made a call for the formalisation of the IOC’s status.
“It is essential that it finally obtains, with the least possible delay, the status of an international Organisation recognised by the Swiss Confederation,” said Samaranch.
I address this extremely urgent request not only to the Syndic of Lausanne but also to the National Councillor for the State of Vaud. You will doubtless realise that the more the IOC in-creases its influence and power, the more the City of Lausanne will derive benefit in all respects and on all levels.”
In 1994, the IOC’s centenary year, Lausanne was designated “Olympic Capital.”
Samaranch remained at the helm for 21 years and took his leave in 2001 after the session in Moscow, the same city in which he had been elected.
He had been hospitalised on his return from Russia and was therefore unable to attend the ceremony at the Olympic Museum to present the keys to his successor, Jacques Rogge, a surgeon from Belgium.
It fell to IOC Vice President Judge Kéba Mbaye to perform the handover with a reference to Rogge’s past as a sailor at three consecutive Olympics.
“You are a good pilot and have all the qualities to lead us safely into harbour: an inside knowledge of sport, intelligence, open-mindedness, a sense of dialogue, urbanity, firmness and integrity,” Mbaye told him.
“I am now going to hand you the keys to Olympic House. These are not some kind of open sesame, which exists only in the tales of the 1001 Nights; rather they symbolise the rudder of the ship that you will now have to steer.”
Rogge was President for 12 years, and in turn handed the keys to Bach in 2013, once again at the Olympic Museum.
The event coincided with the reopening of the museum after a $61 million renovation.
[Watch the Handover Ceremony and reopening of the Olympic Museum]
“You have left the Olympic Movement a solid foundation and you have every reason to be proud of your great achievement, which has benefited sport worldwide,” Bach told his predecessor.
After the handover on Monday, timed to coincide with Olympic Day, Bach will cease to be an IOC member but will take on the position of Honorary President.
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