Welcome to the Issue
At the suggestion of Czech professor Josef Gruss, the 23 of June, the day on which it was decided to reintroduce the Olympic Games in 1894, has been celebrated worldwide as Olympic Day since 1948. In this year’s message of “Together, for a Peaceful World”, Thomas Bach reaffirmed the role sport can play in building bridges in our divided world and promoting global solidarity. With his trip to Kyiv, the IOC President backed up his words with action.
Before doing that, he took part in the anniversary festival in Munich, where the 1972 Olympic Games were held 50 years ago. As is well known, these Games began cheerfully and in high spirits and ended tragically with the murder of 11 members of the Israeli team. In his speech at the inauguration of the Olympic rings in the Olympic Park, Bach described it as an attack on the entire Olympic community and its values.
In all its ambiguity, Munich 1972 is also the focus of this issue. It commemorates the charismatic US swimmer Mark Spitz, winner of seven Olympic gold medals, and recalls designer Otl Aicher’s outstanding visual design, along with the still-controversial basketball final.
An interview conducted by David Wallechinsky with the late mayor of the Olympic Village, Walther Tröger, addresses the dark side. The Israeli historian Eitan M. Mashiah takes stock of commemorative culture in Germany and Israel.
Fifty years ago, many photos were taken in Munich which are now considered iconic – both beautiful but also ugly, like our cover photo of one of the abductors. All these images are part of the visual legacy of the Olympics, which long-time IOC Head of Operations Anthony Edgar describes as one of the strongest and most enduring. Its contribution is at the same time a plea for free and independent reporting of the Games, as enshrined in many IOC documents.
In the case of TV broadcasts, the legal situation is different, as is well known, and no one knows this better than Richard W. Pound, who was appointed chairman of the IOC Television Negotiations Committee in 1983. In part six of his series, the IOC doyen describes how the unprecedented contract with Calgary for US $309 million came about in 1988 and how difficult the negotiations with Seoul were.
What was unprecedented then would be a bargain today – at least compared to the deal the IOC negotiated with NBC for the US broadcast rights for the Winter and Summer Games until 2032, worth US $7.65 billion. This package also includes Los Angeles 2028. How the Games returned to this city for the third time is described by Ann Owens and Barry A. Sanders, former chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games.
As usual, this issue is rounded off by Olympic news, obituaries, reviews, and the IOC biography series.
– Volker Kluge, Editor
Members of ISOH may view digital versions of all issues by clicking here.
There are no comments published yet.