The Olympic Movement is a multi-archive resource compiled from archival collections located in the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The perspectives of athletes, spectators, sports enthusiasts and activists are presented alongside those of governments, sports administrators, medical professionals, media outlets and corporate sponsors to provide researchers with a comprehensive documentary record of the global history of the Olympic movement – from the organisation of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, to the 1992 Summer Olympics and Paralympics held in Barcelona, Spain.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are widely considered to be the world’s foremost sporting competitions. Inspired by the ancient Olympic Games first organised in 776 BCE and held on a quadrennial basis, the Summer and Winter games see thousands of athletes from around the globe compete in a spectacle broadcast to billions of people. Inspired by principles developed by Pierre de Coubertin and Sir Ludwig Guttman, the Olympic and Paralympic games are intended to bring the peoples of the world together through sporting competition.

Via the prism of major international sporting competitions – not only the Olympics and Paralympics, but also regional competitions such as the Pan-American Games – this resource allows users to explore the growing influence of sport over culture, society, and politics (and vice versa) around the world during the twentieth century. It also allows users to examine wider themes in the History of Sport, including the rise of professionalism, debates concerning gender and race, and the development of commercial sponsorship.

For further information on the material selected for inclusion in this resource, visit the Selection Criteria and Guide to the Archival Collections.

 

The Olympic Movement contains vital collections from archives across the United States and Europe, including:

  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee
  • The Olympic Museum
  • The papers of World Abilitysport and predecessor organisations, held at Buckinghamshire Archives
  • Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum
  • The British Film Institute
  • The Yorkshire Film Archive

 

Due to the nature of these sources, written accounts featuring racism, misogyny and explicit language can be found in this resource.

Please also note that, due to the period in which the primary sources in this resource were produced, some do contain language and terminology that is outdated, derogatory and offensive by current standards. Learn more about our approach to terminology in this resource in the Language Statement.

 

The archival material in this resource consists of the following document types:

  • Bid Books
  • Correspondence
  • Diaries
  • Ephemera
  • Film
  • Financial Documents
  • Government Documents
  • Illustrations
  • Legal Documents
  • Maps
  • Minutes
  • Newsletters
  • Newspapers
  • Notes
  • Objects
  • Official Records
  • Pamphlets/Leaflets
  • Periodicals
  • Photographs
  • Posters
  • Press Releases
  • Printed Books
  • Reports
  • Scrapbooks
  • Speeches

 

Themes have been assigned to documents in The Olympic Movement as metadata tags to enhance browsing functionality. Use the filters in View all Documents to focus on documents relevant to your research.

More information on individual themes can be found in the Thematic Guides.

 

The metadata accompanying the documents in The Olympic Movement has been drawn from library and archive catalogues, with additional data supplemented by the AM team to facilitate browsing and searching.

The metadata fields added by AM include:

  • Document Type
  • Theme
  • Countries
  • Places
  • People
  • Organisation
  • Competition/Games
  • Sport
  • Language
  • Related document
  • Sound
  • Colour Format
  • Language
  • Language Statement
  • Copyright and Source Archive

 

Use the Search Directories in The Olympic Movement to refine your research by browsing documents by people, organisations, sports and competitions mentioned in the collection.

In some cases, edits or additions have been made to metadata taken from the library and archive catalogues to improve searchability and to ensure that the language and terminology is aligned with our current editorial guidelines. This is true for the following metadata fields:

  • Title
  • Date
  • Description

 

For more information on language and terminology within this resource, please see our Language Statement.

 

Please note that some materials in this resource include personal information that has been redacted in order to protect the privacy of living individuals.

 

A variety of research tools provide further contextual information or guidance for teaching and research. From essays and video interviews to biographies and exhibitions, explore the options under Research Tools or view the full list in Teaching Tools.