★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get The Sports Examiner by e-mail: sign up here! ★
Olympic collectors have another 100th anniversary celebration on their schedule following the 2024 Paris Games, held 100 years after the memorable Paris Games of 1924.
The Czech Republic capital of Prague will host the XXVIII World Olympic Collectors’ Fair in 2025 with the dates of 29 May through 1 June, chosen to coincide with those of the VIII Olympic Congress held in Prague – then in Czechoslovakia – in 1925.
The Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage awarded the fair to Prague, which emphasized the anniversary in its proposal. The event will be organized by the International Association of Olympic Collectors (AICO) and OLYMPSPORT, the Czech Olympic and sports collectors society, and will be held at the aptly named Hotel Olympik. According to the Prague Daily Monitor, the hotel was built in preparation for a Prague bid for the 1980 Olympic Games, which was awarded to Moscow.
The previous Fair was held in Paris in 2023 and the United States has applied to host the 2026 event in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The application was made jointly by the Olympin Collectors Club and Sports Philatelists International, which are member associations of AICO in the U.S.
There are typically 50-100 tables at these international fairs, with memorabilia ranging from Olympic winners’ medals and torches worth thousands of dollars to pins and stamps … worth a lot less.
No doubt collectibles from the 1925 Olympic Congress, the last under legendary International Olympic Committee President Pierre de Coubertin of France, will make an appearance, including the Congress badge and stamps that were overprinted for the event and cancelled with a special postmark.
The Czech Olympic Committee and other city and sports organizations are planning special events to celebrate the centennial. Fair attendees will be invited to visit locations of importance to the 1925 Congress, a seminar will be sponsored by the Czech Olympic Academy and there will be an exhibition by the National Museum and Museum of Czech Post.
¶
You can receive our exclusive TSX Report by e-mail by clicking here. You can also refer a friend by clicking here, and can donate here to keep this site going.
For our 920-event International Sports Calendar for 2024 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
