5th Century BC to 2012 AD – IAAF Centenary

Monaco – Sept 25, 2012: 5th century BC, The temporary collection of the IAAF Centenary Historic Exhibition, which will be hosted by Museu Olímpic i de l’Esport Joan Antoni Samaranch, Barcelona, Spain, (Saturday 13 October to Sunday 25 November 2012), will delight visitors with artefacts stretching from ancient history to the present day.

The Exhibition has items related to the Olympics, both ancient and modern, dating back to a coin from Olympia in 256BC and comes right up to date with a volunteers’ uniform, and the bib numbers of gold medalists Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba, from the recently concluded Games of the XXX Modern Olympiad, London 2012.

Yet the exhibition delves even further back into the mists of Athletics’ beginnings as the mother of all sports, with items from some of the other Panhellenic Games, highlighted by a vase from the 5th Century BC (Attic Red-Figure Lekythos, Athens, Attica) which depicts an athlete holding jump weights (halteres) in preparation for the Long Jump.

These ancient objects come on loan from the Olympic Gallery of Roberto Gesta de Melo, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, one of the private collections whose loans, along with items from museums and personally lent by athletics legends; compose the core contents of the IAAF Centenary Historic Exhibition.

The displays and artefacts of the Exhibition follow the development of Athletics from the Games of ancient Greece and Rome, to theAntiochene Olympics, from athletics competitions in the Middle Ages, to the revival of the Olympic Games, from Much Wenlock and other British Olympian Games, to the Greek Olympics, and from the birth of the Modern Olympic Games in 1896, through the foundation of the IAAF in 1912, to the creation of the IAAF World Championships in 1983, and, bringing us right-up to date, to the heroes and heroines of Daegu 2011 and London 2012.

The IAAF Centenary Historic Exhibition, one of the core celebrations of a 100 years of Athletics Excellence, puts the IAAF and the sport of Athletics into a historical context, illustrating their remarkable legacy with the greatest ever assembled collection of artefacts from our sport’s history.

The IAAF Centenary Historic Exhibition is open to the public for six weeks from Saturday 13 October, with an official opening ceremony (by invitation only) on the evening of Monday 15 October. —- IAAF