David Miller & Sir Craig Reedie (Photo: British Olympic Association)
by Philip Barker
David Miller has become the latest ISOH member awarded the International Olympic Committee’s Pierre de Coubertin Medal in recognition of his efforts to promote the Olympic Movement.
The presentation was made by former IOC Vice President Sir Craig Reedie at a Ceremony in London.
“David Miller’s contribution is absolutely unique and his work to highlight the history of the Games is absolutely fantastic.” Sir Craig insisted.
“I’ve known David for many years, it came through the joy of reading him, he was part of a wonderful era of Olympic journalism.”
A gifted footballer who played for the famous amateur club, Corinthian Casuals, Miller missed out on the 1956 Olympic squad after the size of the party was reduced for the long trip to Melbourne.
Miller first reported from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 after an epic journey across Asia by the Trans-Siberian Railway.
De Coubertin Medal (Photo: British Olympic Association)
In a long career, he covered sport for the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express and The Times, and worked with Sebastian Coe on the autobiographical Running Free and Born to Run.
Miller also wrote Olympic Revolution, a biography of long serving IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, and chronicled the politics of the Olympic movement, covering unsuccessful British Olympic bids by Birmingham and Manchester before the ultimate success of London with their candidacy for 2012.
In the meantime, Athens to Athens, his official history of the Olympics and the IOC, produced for the 2004 Games, was updated and revised for each subsequent Games.
“David Miller’s contribution is absolutely unique and his work to highlight the history of the Games is absolutely fantastic,” Sir Craig added.
IOC President Thomas Bach paid tribute in a special message.
“Your writing ultimately served a higher purpose than to simply inform people of the latest scores and results,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a special message of tribute.
“With your expert knowledge of the Olympic Movement, you always instinctively grasped the central idea of the Olympic mission: to unite the entire world in peaceful competition.”
Last year the medal was presented to American writer George Hirthler, another keen student of the works of de Coubertin.
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