List of Candidates
For President:
David Wallechinsky (USA)
David Wallechinsky was introduced to the Olympics when his father, Irving Wallace, took him to the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. He is the author of The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics and The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics. He has worked as a radio and/or television commentator at every Olympics since 1988. He is a member of the IOC Commission on Culture and Olympic Heritage, and he is a recipient of the IOC’s Olympic Order. He was a founding member of ISOH and served as ISOH treasurer for eight years and vice-president for eight years before being elected president in 2012.
For Vice-President:
Dr. Christian Wacker (GER) is an archaeologist and sport historian and received his Ph.D. for The Ancient Gymnasium in Olympia, at Würzburg University in Germany. His main field of research is ancient sports history, but also modern and Olympic sports history due to his activities in organizing more than 30 sports exhibitions during the last 15 years. From 2005 to 2008, he directed the German Sport and Olympia Museum in Cologne and from 2008 to 2014 he was the Director of the Qatar Olympic & Sports Museum in Doha. Actually he works as Academic Director at the University of Freiburg and develops an Academy for Museum Studies. He had been teaching at universities in Germany and Brazil as well as at the International Olympic Academy in Greece and published 15 books and around 60 papers about sports history and archaeology. He is a member of various sport cultural associations, Vice-President of ISOH, President of the German Pierre de Coubertin Committee, President of Prolympo and member of the Board of Trustees of the Sportmuseum Switzerland.
For Secretary-General:
Kitty Carruthers (GBR) was born in Zambia in 1952 and brought up largely in Africa. From an early age sport was a passion and she has never let lack of aptitude stand in the way of having a go at anything, from skiing to skeet shooting, dressage to darts. Without the international competitive experience of so many of her fellow members of ISOH, she nonetheless played football for the Milk Marketing Board, table tennis for the Naval Home Command, and captained the hockey teams of her schools in Zambia and Surrey. She is happy on a horse, on a water ski and with any sort of racquet in hand – or latterly (since age and weight have caught up with her), a croquet mallet. She regularly plays this sociable game in many parts of the world (winning the doubles at the Greek Open and the Eastern Province Championships in South Africa). Her interest Arabian horses takes her around globe attending events and promoting books.
Ever in awe of Olympians through the ages, and in love with the ideals of Olympic sportsmanship, in 2011 she published a slim volume entitled British Olympic Heroes: the Best of British Gold Medallists and appeared as a ‘talking head’ on television in the run up to London 2012.
In 2009, with her husband and business partner, she established her own publishing company, Medina Publishing Ltd, which specialises in equestrian and field sports, and Arab and Islamic affairs (disparate subjects which overlapped when she was involved with PR for the Saudi Equestrian team in 2012). An editor, illustrator and designer, she has since 2010 also been associate editor on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History.
Markus Osterwalder (SUI) developed an interest in the Olympic Movement during his studies to become a graphic designer in Switzerland. Following a visit to the Olympic Library in Lausanne in 1990, he started building his own Olympic collection of books, pictures, and memorabilia. He has visited every edition of the Games since Lillehammer 1994, taking photographs, collecting memorabilia, and meeting designers to discuss their preparations. In 2010, Markus was appointed to lead, develop and design the „Olympic Memorabilia Project“, supported by numerous Olympic collectors worldwide. His latest book project is entitled Olympic History in Graphic Design, to be published in 2019.
For Treasurer:
Laurel Ann Zeisler Grasso; born 21 June, 1968, Flushing, New York. Laurel Zeisler has had a lifelong love of a variety of sports based on the influence of her father, John Grasso. He authored the Historical Dictionary of Tennis. A strong tennis player herself, she also played field hockey for the first time while in South Africa as a Rotary Exchange Student. She attended both the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, in Los Angeles and Seoul respectively, and is looking forward to watching hockey at her first Winter Olympics. Zeisler’s educational background includes a B.A. in Journalism from Binghamton University, M.A. in Speech Language Pathology from Kean University, and a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Seton Hall University. She has applied her research training to this Historical Dictionary. Laurel is a current member of the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR), and International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH). Also an avid collector of books, her hockey collection has multiplied considerably during this endeavor. Additionally, she has created new hockey fans by bringing her daughters to the Binghamton and Albany AHL games. Dr. Zeisler’s other research interests include decisional procrastination and stress, Prader-Willi syndrome, and fourth place Olympians. Currently, Laurel is an assistant professor at SUNY Oneonta in the Communication & Media Department. She also teaches public speaking at SUNY Delhi.
For membership of Executive Board:
Philip Barker (GBR) will cover his eighth Olympic Games in Rio this summer. He has also reported on every Youth Olympic Games to date. Has worked for Olympic Broadcasting Services and writes for the Inside the Games website. He is also a regular contributor on Olympic matters to Monocle, BBC television and radio, Al Jazeera, Skysports News and many others. His books include The Story of the Olympic Torch and Lord’s Firsts a bicentenary history of the cricket ground which staged Olympic archery in 2012. He also compiled ‘Five Rings over Britain’ a short history of the IOC sessions held in Britain and has written on many occasions for British Olympic publications. At the London Olympics, he served as Team GB historian.
Åge Dalby (NOR) (born 16.02.44) – in Åmot, Hedmark. Lives in Oslo. Norwegian champion (junior) and world record holder 3000 m in speed-skating in 1962. He was Board member of the Norwegian Skating Union (1997-1999, 2003-2005), and Head of Organising Committee National Championships in Hamar (2007-2ß09). His career began as a journalist for Verdens Gang, Norway’s largest selling newspaper (1967-1991); in 1991 he became Head of National Broadcasting Norway Television, Sport (1991-1992); he was also Director of Information of the World Championships Cycling 1993 in Oslo (1992-93); then Editor of magazine Vi Menn in Oslo (1994-2002); and lastly Director of the Norwegian Olympic Museum, Lillehammer (2002-2011). He was awarded with the “Hederstegn” (Mark of Distinction) from the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Association of Sports (2011); He was one of the team of three authors for Olympic Games Summer 1896-2004 (2004) and Olympic Games Winter 1924-2006 (2006) and GOLD – 101 portraits of Olympic Champions. (2013). He became a member of ISOH in 2006 and received the same year the award for “Best Monograph” for his book Olympic Games Summer (2004); In 2011:he was awarded the Vikelas Plaque.
Anthony Edgar (AUS) was born in the UK following the Rome 1960 Olympic Games. He is currently Head of Media Operations for the IOC, a position he has held since 2002. His primary responsibility is working closely with each Olympic Organising Committee (OCOG) over the seven year Olympic cycle in delivery of all media facilities and services for the Olympic Games, Olympic Winter Games, Youth Olympic Games and IOC Sessions. Prior to this he was Press Chief of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) 2001-2002 and from 1997-2000 was responsible for all sport content and publications for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. From 1997-2000 he was associate editor of the Journal of Olympic History. He has recently taken on the additional responsibility of the delivery of the Olympic Information Service at the Olympic Games and the Youth Information Service at the Youth Olympic Games. He has a very close working relationship with the media industry, principally major news agencies, TV news organisations, newspapers, photographic agencies and rights holding broadcasters, as well as National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Sporting Federations (IFs). He has a particular interest in the future of news in a digital age, a subject he regularly speaks on. He is chair of the IOC Press Committee.
Konstantinos Georgiadis (GRE) is a Professor of the University of Peloponnese.
He holds a PhD in Sports Science from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. Since the academic year 2009-2010, he is director of the International Postgraduate Program of Olympic Studies ‘Olympic Studies, Olympic Education, Organization and Management of Olympic Events’, organised by the University of Peloponnese and the International Olympic Academy. In January 2010 he became Vice-Rector of Culture and International Relations.
Since 2000, he is member of the IOC Commission for Culture and Olympic Education.
During the organization of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he was member of the Executive Board of the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. He has been honoured with the Vikelas Plaque (2007) by the ISOH for his contribution to the Olympic research. His main works are: The ideohistorical base of the Olympic Games revival in Athens in the 19th century and the first International Olympic Games and The Revival of the Olympic Games. Among his recent editions are: 50 years International Olympic Academy. Inspirations and Memories, Georgiadis K., Syrigos A. (Eds), Olympic Truce – Sport as a Platform for Peace, Koulouri Chr., Georgiadis K. (Eds), The International Olympic Academy – History of an Olympic Institution.
Volker Kluge (GER) is a journalist who worked 50 years for daily newspapers and journals. Since 1968 he published about 50 books, documentaries, DVD’s and some thousands articles on sports, Olympic Movement and Olympic history. His main work is an Olympic chronicle with five volumes and 5000 pages. Furthermore he was curator of a couple of exhibitions (at least on the occasion 75th anniversary of 1936 Olympic Games in the Berlin Olympia Stadium and the former Olympic Village). Until now he reported about 17 Olympic Games. He was a member of the Executive Committee and Honorary Press Chief of the NOC of GDR, afterwards personal member of the NOC for Germany. He has participated at the IOA in 1984 and was press chief of the 90th IOC Session. Currently he is a member of the ISOH Executive Board and Editor of the Journal of Olympic History. He was honoured with the ISOH Lifetime Award in 2008.
Ray Mason (AUS) will cover his fifth Summer Olympic Games in Rio, having worked as a research leader for the Australian Broadcast Rights Holder since 2000. He has also worked as a researcher on three Winter Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games and a Rugby World Cup. He has been a sports writer and researcher since 1994, having written or contributed to over 40 books, including 100 Great Australian Olympians and Australian Sport Through Time. He has also written on topics ranging from the Olympics, rugby union, cricket and a variety of other sports, as well as the arts, politics and crime. During the past 15 years, Ray Mason has worked on major sporting events for all four free-to-air television networks in Australia, as well as Foxtel. He was also a contributing writer for Inside Sport, Australia’s leading sports magazine, for over ten years and has supplied information and research to the Australian Olympic Committee.
Colm Murphy (IRL). A teacher by profession his innovative methods have won him several awards at regional and national level including [UK] Teacher of the Year Award 2013. Prior to becoming a teacher he was employed as a reporter by a national newspaper in Ireland as an sports correspondent. He has also edited several specialist philatelic and sports’ Magazines and Journals.
As a competitive athlete he competed to International (Ireland) level in the discus and shot. He has also attained representative honours in such diverse sporting activities as boxing, cricket and rugby. This interest continues to the present day where he acts as an official and administrator and was a co-founder of the main Throwers’ Club in the UK and Ireland.
Having being inspired by a chance meeting with Harold Abrahams and the Lord Killanin to write an article on Irish athletes of the 19th century he has since written numerous articles and over 20 books on such diverse topics as cricket, rugby, athletics and early Olympic History. His main interest lies in 19th and early 20th Century Irish sport and the Olympic Games, in particular the field events.
He is currently working on a six volume series on the First World War, and is planning books on Olympians who died during the First World War and Irish Athletes and the First World War. His help is frequently called upon on information on 19th and early 20th Sport and Athletics in particular and his stock of photographs is constantly being utilised in a variety of publications. A long term project is a History of the [athletics’] Throwing Events.
Jeff Segrave (USA/England) was born in Warwickshire, England. He attended the University of Exeter as an undergraduate, where he read history, before leaving for the USA to complete his graduate studies at Arizona State University. He is currently professor of health and exercise sciences at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, where he has also served as department chair, director of athletics, and Dean of Special Programs. In 2005, he was awarded the David H. Potter Endowed Chair at Skidmore College. His main area of scholarly interest lies in the socio-cultural analysis of sport; hence, he embraces an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to study sport at the intersections of history, sociology, and literature. He has been a life-long scholar of the Olympic Games and published several book chapters and numerous articles on the Games in a wide variety of journals including the Journal of Olympic History, Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies, Stadion: The International Journal of the History of Sport, Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. He has also published two anthologies on the Olympic Games – Olympism (1980) and The Olympic Games in Transition (1988). His main field of Olympic research is currently the interim years – the approximately 1500 years between the abolition of the Ancient Games and their modern establishment in the late 19th century. He has lectured at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece, and delivered more than 30 conference papers on the Olympics in Europe, Asia, and America. He commonly appears on radio and television in the USA.
Leif Yttergren (SWE) is 55 years young and he is working as an associated professor in history at The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences. His research on Olympic matters has previously dealt with the Winter Olympics and the sports leader and IOC President Sigfrid Edström. The research has resulted in several articles in both Swedish and International journals. Also, he has just finished a large study on the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm together with a colleague. The study will be published in English later this spring. He is a former top-level basket ballplayer. In 1980 he had the opportunity to take part in the basketball tournament in the Olympic Games in Moscow. It was a memory for life and there his interest in the Olympics was awakened. And from that day the Olympics follow his steps wherever he goes.