Karel Wendl (1930-2019), Thank You Karel

Karel Wendl, who played an important role in promoting the study of Olympic history, passed away in Prague on 8 May 2019.

Wendl was born in Prague on 22 November 1930. His father was Czech and his mother was Serbian-Hungarian. Because his father was a member of the Czechoslovak diplomatic service, Karel spent most of the first nine years of his life in France. Two days before the German occupation of Paris, the Wendl family fled the city, first to Southern France and then escaping to Algeria, Morocco and Portugal, before arriving in the United States and Mexico, where his father was appointed ambassador to Mexico. After the war, Karel settled in Prague, eventually earning a doctoral degree in law from Charles University in 1953. After serving in the Czechoslovak army, he worked in the legal departments of foreign companies and taught international law. Fluent in four languages and able to speak two more, he also worked as a translator.

Wendl was a leading marathon runner, achieving a personal best of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 48 seconds in early 1956, a time that was faster than the winner of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. However, he was not sent to the Games because of the budget limitations of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee.

With his Mexican wife, Maria del Carmen, Wendl emigrated back to Mexico in 1966. While there, he worked with the Mexican Olympic Committee and the Cultural Commission of the 1968 Mexico City Games, as well as with the Mexican Track and Field Federation. He also taught at the Instituto de Intérpretes y Traductores and worked at the Unidad Linquística de la Presidencia de México as an interpreter.

When his wife died in 1981, Wendl and his two sons moved to Switzerland. In 1983, Karel began working for the International Olympic Committee. He rose to the position of curator of the Olympic Studies and Research Center in 1994, having already headed the IOC’s Olympic Research Department. He worked closely with IOC President Juan Antonio Samarach, including as a speechwriter. He also aided architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez during the creation of the Olympic Museum and the IOC headquarters in Lausanne.

In 1992, Wendl became one of the original members of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH). In 1994, he was appointed by IOC President Samaranch to be the IOC’s liaison to ISOH, and he became a member of the ISOH Executive Board. He was chosen to be an honorary life member of ISOH in 1996. That same year, he was awarded the Olympic Order by the IOC.

Among the articles he wrote were:

“Pedro Ramírez Vázquez: Portrait of a Designer” (Olympic Review, 1987)

“Tarahumaras: A Passion for Running” (Olympic Review, 1987)

“History Told Through Olympic Insignia” (Olympic Review, 1988)

“The International Olympic Committee in the Years 1980-1994” (Critical Reflections on Olympic Ideology: Second International Symposium for Olympic Research, 1994)

“The Olympic Movement One Hundred Years Ago” (Olympic Review, 1995)

“The Olympic Oath, a Brief History” (Journal of Olympic History, 1995)

“A Brief Commentary on the IOC Secretariat in Transformation” (Olympic Perspectives: Third International Symposium for Olympic Research, 1996)

“The Route of Friendship: A Cultural/Artistic Event of the Games of the XIX Olympiad in Mexico City – 1968” (Olympika, 1998)

A 20-minute audio interview with Karel Wendl can be found here.