The Olympic Museum of Lausanne

[kerouac2]

I decided that this report belongs here where nobody will see it.  They won't know what they're missing.

I have driven through Lausanne along the the lake quite a few times and always thought that I might want to stop here but didn't.  But when I came at last to spend  a couple of days in Lausanne, it was at the top of my list of things to see.  It opened in 1993 and was inspired by Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee for more than 20 years.  Why Lausanne?  If you didn't know, it has been the seat of the IOC for more than 100 years.  It was created in 1894 and was based in Paris until 1915.  Then was moved to Lausanne by Pierre de Coubertin to keep it safe from the war and has remained ever since.  So Switzerland is actually useful, who woulda thunk?

The museum is at the top of the hill of the Olympic park.  You can climb the stairs (I did) or wind through the park on long shady ramps.

The park is full of artworks devoted to sports.

To the park's credit, not all of the art is in a classical style.

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This is where the Olympic flame lives when it is not globetrotting. I arrived before the museum opened, but at 09:00 the metal cover opens to reveal it.



This is Pierre de Courbertin who revived the Olympics, made a tiny step in the direction of world peace and gave rich countries a way to spend shitloads of money.





Jean-Michel Folon was a world renowned Belgian artist, so even though this is not sports oriented, it found a place here. (Rained out games?)



So here we go in.







This part of the museum is free as is the area for the temporary exhibits.









After looking at this, I went and bought my ticket. I presume that I was under constant video surveillance, but it was refreshing that there were no physical guards.

[kerouac2]

The first section was devoted to the original Olympic games with many ancient artifacts. Most of us have vague knowledge of this but never paid attention to the details.









Here is the official scraping tool for preparing your nude body for the competition.



The pottery of the time often portrayed Olympic athletes receiving awards.





A couple of thousand years later, Pierre de Coubertin came on the scene.





Plans were made for a revival of the games.



A principal reason for the games was to get over the humiliation of France after the Franco-Prussian war.



These are facsimiles of the Olympic charter speech. The originals are displayed twice a year.

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One could find this photo a bit distressing after learning that this is the second most visited museum in Switzerland.



I can't even begin to imagine how distressing this was for the IOC. But so many other organisations went through the same thing.



This is one of the very many "bad weather" protections for the Olympic torch on its travels.



Official posters for the Games have been extremely variable over the years...



... as have been the Olympic mascot souvenir dolls.



Then of course there is the architecture of Olympic stadiums. I'm sure everybody recocognizes this one.



Lots of surprising artifacts. The vast majority were donated by the Olympic committees or the athletes themselves.

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Costumes from the various opening ceremonies were on display.











And then it was down to the next level to see some archives of the action.





Here were some of the sports outfits from the early Games.





and of course more modern sporting attire as well

[kerouac2]

The Paralympics and the Special Olympics are on full proud display here.





There is also the fact that the Olympics have been one of the few events that have obtained a pause in hostilities (Yugoslavia, Korea...). Not often enough.



These panels bear the signatures of all of the athletes supporting the Olympic Truce.



There is a whole area for people to test themselves (reflexes, speed, force...) on all sorts of machines. I'm sure that school groups go wild here.



Maybe the shooting events will be abandoned some day, but you can test your marksmanship here.



When we think of athletes, we don't always think of all of the different morphologies and sizes that compete, so here are a lot of them.









Unlike the athletes, museum visitors do not have to pee in a jar.

[kerouac2]

Finally, there was a display of Olympic medals from every year.







In recent times, the medals have grown in size and I find them rather grotesque. Media influencers have probably been hard at work.





And that was it.



I was relieved to see that people were now pouring into the museum. They probably thought that it didn't open until 10:00. I wound down through the garden.







You can't have a sculpture garden without Botero.



Whenever I return to Lausanne, I will return to this museum and see it at a more leisurely pace than this visit.

[mich64]

I have wanted to visit this museum so I was so happy to see this report! Someday we will get there but until then it was great to look through your visit.

[htmb]

This brought back memories of my visit to the museum in 2019. When I got there in the morning, there weren’t many people there, but it began to fill up a little bit as school groups arrived. I expecially enjoyed seeing the outdoor sculptures, but also was happy to see a pair of Jesse Owens’ shoes on display. The museum is beautifully done, as we can see from your excellent report, but I found myself a bit bored until I started observing the reactions the school children were having to the displays. It made my visit much more interesting.

Note to anyone visiting in the future: Before I visited the museum I went to see a small photo exhibit nearby. Thus, I came down from a metro stop located behind and to the east of the museum, through the Parc de l'Elysée. There is a very nice path that leads downhill, so I avoided walking up hill from the lake.

[mich64]

Aug 8, 2022 19:44:43 GMT htmb said:

Note to anyone visiting in the future: Before I visited the museum I went to see a small photo exhibit nearby. Thus, I came down from a metro stop located behind and to the east of the museum, through the Parc de l'Elysée. There is a very nice path that leads downhill, so I avoided walking up hill from the lake.

Really good tip htmb!