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Updates
13 September 2004 [Note from the Editor: This update is a slightly different version from that distributed to Coubertin.com email subscribers. It excludes email addresses to prevent their automated gathering and spamming. It also excludes names and telephone numbers to protect our members' privacy. For full versions of updates you need to be a member and a subscriber.] UPDATE No.25 FROM COUBERTIN.COM A big welcome to all new members of the Coubertin.com Olympic Collectors' Auction service and a special thank you to all members who have participated in the auction. There are now 1,025 active members! Coubertin.com brings together more Olympic Collectors than any other club, society or organisation in the world. We successfully achieved a projected target of 1,000 active members by the Athens 2004 Olympic Games! A target that was predicted five years ago! ATHENS 2004 Congratulations go to Greece for being a superb host of the Olympic Games. If Juan Antonio Samaranch were still President of the IOC they would have undoubtedly been called the 'best ever' since that was his catch-phrase. But then we already knew that was going to be the case since both the 1896 and 1906 Athens Games were the best ever too. One enormous disappointment was the failure of ATHOC and the IOC to acknowledge the existence of two important founders of the Modern Olympic Games when the history of the Olympics was reviewed in the Opening Ceremony. Instead they chose to tell us a story that jumped from Ancient Greece to the IOC in 1894 and did not mention Olympic Games held in the Panathenian stadium in Athens in 1870. No mention was made of Evangelis Zappas who sponsored the revival of the Olympic Games in Greece and paid for the refurbishment of the Panathenian stadium. No mention was made of Dr William Penny Brookes who profoundly influenced Baron Pierre de Coubertin to go on to found the IOC and who went on to use many ideas that Brookes had developed and used in the Wenlock Olympian Games. If you would like to learn a little more about the history of the Modern Olympic Games visit www.zappas.org. It was very satisfying to see that the Greeks had not used up all their fireworks celebrating their victory in the Euro 2004 soccer tournament and they delivered spectacular fireworks displays in both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The Chinese cultural contribution to the Closing Ceremony was even more spectacular. We all have our own favorite moments in the races themselves and ofcourse the majority of those moments are viewed differently from country to country depending on the final results themselves. Enough said. 118th WENLOCK OLYMPIAN GAMES Held July 9 - 12, 2004 at Much Wenlock, Shropshire, United Kingdom. Coubertin.com is proud to have sponsored the Junior Pentathlon at the Games. The Society of Olympic Collectors sponsored the Archery Competition (as they have done in earlier years). Olympian successfully completed the Triathlon at the Games. He finished 59th out of 99. Then went on to complete another Triathlon later in the month at St. Alban's despite suffering a painful knee injury less than two weeks before the event. PINSY Vendor Pinsy has been trading pins in the heart of Athens during the Olympic Games and has returned home to Norway with a suitcase full of pins and other memorabilia. Let's hope he gets to listing some soon. 23rd ANNUAL OLYMPIN MEMORABILIA FESTIVAL The show hours for this Olympic pin collecting extravaganza are 10am till 5pm on the 8th and 9th of October, 2004 then 10am till 4pm on the 10th of October. Location is: Wilshire Grand Hotel, 930 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA. If you would like additional details about the show events or to order tickets for the banquet or tour (on the 7th of October) contact the Olympin Collector's Club. They have recently setup a website at www.olympin.com. If you collect pins and live in California (and a large percentage of our members do) this event must not be missed because this is the biggest Olympic pin collectors' event. IONEIL.COM Ingrid O'Neil's latest Olympic Memorabilia auction closes on September 18 so don't forget to bid before Saturday at www.ioneil.com. SOCIETY OF OLYMPIC COLLECTORS Those of you that specialize in Olympic philately, postal history or postcards that are not already members of the Society of Olympic Collectors cannot be serious collectors if you are not members of this Society. There were two superb articles in the last edition of their Torch Bearer publication. One article about the London 1908 marathon and another about the postal history of the Paris 1924 Olympic Games. They also listed a range of commemorative philatelic items and postcards for London 2012, many that were created by the Society, that can be found nowhere else. Visit www.societyofolympiccollectors.org and click on the 'Join Us' link to become a member today. You need to be a member to bid on their current auction which closes for bids on the 30th of September. The current auction includes a nice selection of 1936 Berlin, some tickets, programs and at least one pin.
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