The Olympic Museum () in Lausanne, Switzerland houses permanent and temporary exhibits relating to sport and the Olympic movement. With more than 10,000 artifacts, the museum is the largest archive of Olympic Games memorabilia in the world and one of Lausanne's prime tourist site draws attracting more than 250,000 visitors each year.

The Olympic Museum and the Olympic Park (sculpture garden between the museum and Lake Léman) are located at Ouchy, south of Lausanne. The headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are located at Vidy, to the west of Ouchy.

History

The museum was founded on 23 June 1993, on the initiative of then-president of the IOC Juan Antonio Samaranch. Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, an International Olympic Committee member, and Jean-Pierre Cahen, were in charge of the project. The museum was named the European Museum of the Year in 1995.

Olympic Park

The Olympic Museum is surrounded by a park containing numerous works of art on the theme of sports. Among the most notable works of art in the museum's permanent collection are the French sculptors Auguste Rodin's The American Athlete and Niki de Saint Phalle's Les Footballeurs, the Luxembourgish sculptor Lucien Wercollier's tribute to the pole vault titled Altius, the Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero's Jeune Fille a la Balle, and a kinetic art sculpture by the Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely which combines a hockey stick, a boar's head, and a motorbike wheel.

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File:Losanna, museo olimpico, ext., 00.JPG|From the shores of Lake Léman

File:Olympic Flames.jpg|Olympic torches inside the museum before the 2012 floods.

File:Flamme olympique Lausanne.jpg|The Olympic Flame

File:Picswiss VD-46-60.jpg|Non-Violence sculpture in the Olympic Park

File:Lausanne MO.jpg|Statue in front of the museum, on the shore of Lake Léman

File:Olympic Museum on MS Helvétie.jpg|During the transformations of the building (until December 2013), a temporary exhibition is set up in this CGN boat, in front of the Olympic Park

File:Cyclistes - Gabor Mihaly.jpg|Cyclistes, sculpture by Gabor Mihaly

File:Citius Altius Fortius Berrocal.jpg|Citius, Altius, Fortius, sculpture by Miguel Ortiz Berrocal at the entrance to the Olympic Museum

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See also

  • International Olympic Committee (IOC)
  • List of museums in Switzerland

Notes and references

  • Page on the website of the City of Lausanne
  • Olympic Museum within Google Arts & Culture