Anniversaries should be celebrated; people want to remember what has happened and engage in a culture of remembrance. As historians, we are particularly fond of doing this and like to note that 100 years ago, the first Winter Olympics took place in the winter sports destination of Chamonix. […]

ISOH President Christian Wacker remembers Edson Arantes Do Nascimento, better known as Pele, who never competed in the Olympics but carried the Olympic Flame in Rio de Janeiro with great emotion and was a standard bearer for all that is best in sport. […]
ISOH President Christian Wacker examines Olympic Heritage and asks How can Olympic monuments be protected and preserved for posterity? Richard Pound offers a personal reflection on the Olympic Congress held in Varna 50 years ago. Stan Greenberg remembers […]

The Olympic flame in Tokyo had hardly been extinguished when the flame for the XXIV Winter Olympiad in Beijing was ignited ten weeks later in Ancient Olympia. Philip Barker reports on both events in this issue, […]

At this moment, as I write these words, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo – postponed by a year – are officially being opened. The Japanese hosts, forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to adjust their […]

The world has changed since the last edition of the Journal. Our fears have become reality as the spread of COVID-19 has forced the IOC and Japanese organisers to postpone the Tokyo Olympics by a year. […]