Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) was a French aristocrat and lawyer whose studies of ancient Greece and Rome led him to a lifelong appreciation of the Olympic Games. In 1874, when de Coubertin was 11, Germany began a six-year excavation of ancient Olympia. Out of the ground came 40 monuments, 130 statues and bas-reliefs, 6,000 coins, 13,000 bronze votives used as sacrifices to the mythical gods, and 400 inscriptions.
These discoveries drove Europe into a frenzy for the classical world. The seeds for the rituals of ancient sport were also implanted in the young de Coubertin’s imagination and his own obsession with the role sport could play for the betterment of man – and even for peace – began. In 1896, thanks to his efforts, the very first international Olympiad competition in 1,500 years took place in Athens, Greece.
The museum the baron dreamed of, however, did not open until June 1993 (fifty-six years after de Coubertin’s death), due to the inevitable politics involved in such a grand, international undertaking.
The choice of the large park in Ouchy, Switzerland, Lausanne’s once sleepy port, where the famous Bel Époque Hotel Beau Rivage Palace (once home to Coco Chanel and Charlie Chaplin as well as Hollywood stars en passant) is situated, was a minefield of opposing opinions. Locals, justifiably, saw quaint Ouchy being turned into a noisy, bustling tourist attraction where large busses would empty out thousands of tourists from around the world to view track star, Jesse Owens’ sneakers or buy impressive, colorful posters from myriad past Olympics.
As I once had enjoyed living in Ouchy, when it was still a charming, sleepy port, and a ritual morning coffee with friends at the Hotel Angleterre was an important part of my day, is, perhaps, why I had put off a visit to the Olympic Museum for many years. Or maybe I was not keen on the rather cold, industrial design of the museum, a collaboration of an Italian and a Swiss architect, in a vast park which, to me, could have reflected the mid-19th architecture of Hotel Beau Rivage and the Ouchy I knew so well. Call me old-fashioned. But there are contemporary additions to classical museum architecture that do work for me; I find I.M. Pei‘s glass pyramid in the Louvre’s courtyard stunning.
Nevertheless, this past Christmas, following a press release on December 10th from the current IOC President, Kristy Coventry (a two-time Olympic champion swimmer) that transgender athletes would be excluded from Olympic Games for the foreseeable future, pushed me to climb the 97 steps, each containing the name of the final torchbearer engraved on it, that lead up to the museum. Had President Coventry based her decision on fellow swimmer Riley Gaines being forced to take second place on the 2022 platform at the NCCAs to the very masculine trans “female” swimmer, Lia Thomas? I do wonder how the IOC will handle the trans issue in the future. It’s not going away.
I’m glad I climbed the steps, (there are, of course, other ways to more easily access the museum) as the 3,000 square meters of exhibitions are truly outstanding.
The visit begins with a journey back through time to antiquity: the site of Olympia, a 3D rendering of the temple of Zeus, an interactive model and an overview of the sports practiced at the time. It continues with an area devoted to Baron Pierre de Coubertin that provides the historical and cultural context behind the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896. A huge timeline panel guides visitors through all the previous Games and shows how the Olympic Movement has evolved.
The next section focuses on The Olympic Truce (ekecheria), the cornerstone of the ancient Games, providing safety and a peaceful environment for both the athletes competing in the Games and the spectators in attendance, and the Olympic Flame, with the full collection of all the Olympic Torches from 1936 onwards. I couldn’t help wondering if ekecheria would be possible for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, given the present state of the city and the general state of California politics.
The exhibition continues with the host cities and their sustainability commitments and the re-use of sporting infrastructure. Naturally, ecology even figures in the Olympics.
Then comes the section I enjoyed most, where visitors can relive some of the most iconic moments from Olympic opening ceremonies through spectacular sequences. My grandchildren would have also been fascinated.
Last but not least, the lifeblood of the Games, on the bottom floor, devoted to the athletes who have written their names into Olympic Summer and Winter Games folklore; a shoe worn by Jesse Owens at the Berlin 1936 Games, the numbered bib worn by Nadia Comaneci at the Montreal 1976 Games, the running vest worn by Usain Bolt at the Beijing 2008 Games, the tennis racquet signed by Novak Djokovic at the Paris 2025 Games and much more. Pride of place is given to a display of the Olympic medals from 1896 to the present day.
The museum’s curators believe that the notion of Olympism (the philosophy that seeks to blend sport with culture, education, and international cooperation) is fundamental to its purpose to introduce the public to the contribution sports and the idea of the Olympic Games and their values make to society. Perhaps, for this reason alone, The Olympic Museum should be visited by families with children.
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IF YOU GO:
The Olympic Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 9 am to 6 pm. Bookings for museum visits and at the restaurant, overlooking Lac Léman and the alps can be made online at: Olympics.com/museum/visit/restaurant. Ticket Prices: Adults (16 and over), CHF 20. Children up to 15, free. Groups (minimum 10 people) 14 CHF. Private guided tours (in 11 languages, up to 25 people 190 CHF plus admission ticket). Audio guides available in 9 languages.
Community Calendar:
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As a 5 year old child I still remember sitting on my Greek grandfather's knee, listening to his stories of Zeus, Medusa and many other mythological Greek characters. He also told me that in 1896, when he was a young teenager, his father took him to watch the Olympic Games in Athens, which was several hours by horseback from his seaside village. His favorite part of that story was that since the ticket taker at the gate knew his father, he let them in to watch the games for free. A few years later, at the age of only 16, my grandfather immigrated alone to the US, sponsored by an uncle living in Chicago. When he arrived at Ellis Island in New York, speaking only Greek, when asked by the immigration official to spell his name, the official immediately cut his name in half, put an "s" at the end and then yelled "next"! My grandfather later joked that at the time, he wondered if his new American name was "Thermos" or "Next".
As if the French 2025 Olympics were not bad enough with their sacrilegious depiction of a transgender mockery of the Last Supper painting, now this year the opening ceremony featured a flaming inverted pentacle.
With all the bombardment of the Satanic symbolism in the Epstein documents I am horrified that an international celebration of Sport has also been somehow presented as a captured representation of evil.
It is said that Satan must work "in plain sight" and we ignore this blatant symbolism at our peril.