Olympic Museum adds objects from the Paris Olympics

Paris Olympics: over 200 objects collected by the Olympic Museum Keystone-SDA

The Olympic Museum in Lausanne has updated its collection with over 200 objects from the Paris Olympics. Donated by athletes, these items were presented by the museum on Tuesday.

Some of the “star items” added included the equipment used by several gold medallists at the Paris Games, such as Novak Djokovic’s racket, gymnast Rebeca Andrade’s leotard, sprinter Julien Alfred’s outfit, marathon runner Sifan Hassan’s jersey, wrestler Mijain Lopez’s shoes and the ball from the basketball final signed by the American team.

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However, the collection was not limited to just sporting objects. In particular, the Olympic Museum got its hands on outfits worn during the opening and closing ceremonies. A special find was the “Golden Voyager” outfit created by Swiss designer Kevin Germanier.

The Olympic Museum has been acquiring objects for its collection directly on site since the 1984 Olympic Games. In Paris, three people are dedicated full-time to this task, approaching athletes in stadiums, hotels and the Olympic Village.

“In the case of Novak Djokovic, for example, we had to wait several hours outside his dressing room after the final before he could pick up his racket,” says Yasmin Meichtry, the museum’s associate director.

‘Ideal list’

While the bulk of this collection comes directly from competitions, the work also starts six months in advance. Contacts are made with with sports federations, national Olympic committees and athletes’ managers, explains Meichtry.

An “ideal list” of acquisitions is then drawn up and generally includes items from “big stars” but also objects that “tell a story” or are poorly represented in its collections. Notable gaps include artistic disciplines (synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics) and new Olympic sports (breakingdancing, skateboarding, surfing).

So far, 209 artifacts have been collected in connection with the Paris Olympics, from 27 different sports (out of 32 on the programme). Acquisitions will continue after the Games are over.

“We learned on Monday that we were to receive a swimsuit from Léon Marchand”, the superstar of the swimming events,” said Meichtry.

The various objects will now be inventoried and photographed. Some of them will then be presented to the public as of next year as part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. Some will be used for temporary exhibitions, while others will be loaned to other institutions.

In all, the Lausanne museum houses more than 90,000 objects retracing 120 years of Olympic movement. Around 1,500 of these can be seen in the permanent exhibition.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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