National Archives replays more than 100 years of Olympic Games

​It is an unprecedented exhibition, both outside the walls and itinerant, which retraces more than a century of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in France. Until 27 September, the exhibition (Re) Play! 100 years of Olympic Games in Francedesigned by the National Archives and organized by the Ministry of Culture, proposes to return to the place of sport in the culture and daily life of the French. « The coming summer will be a great cultural and sporting moment that will mark our country in a lasting way. It is the spirit of this exhibition that celebrates France’s long Olympic tradition and the fruitful dialogue between sport, culture and history "Culture Minister Rachida Dati said at the opening of the exhibition on Monday, April 22.

Several highlights are planned including one at the Palais-Royal National Estate with iconographic documents accompanied by models of the athletes' village and objects that belonged to champions of yesterday and today such as the shoes of Alain Mimoun, the swim cap of Laure Manaudou or the wheelchair wheel of basketball player Kathy Laurent. Organized in partnership with the territorial public institution of Plaine Commune, which includes several cities of Seine-Saint-Denis including Pierrefitte-sur-Seine where is located a site of the National Archives, it will be declined locally with this timehere is an unprecedented selection of documents from the various municipal archives that values local personalities related to the Olympiad.

(Re) Playing is also part of the commitment of the National Archives in the Cultural Olympiad, with the Great Collection of Sports Archives launched in 2022 until the end of the year. This operation invites citizens, sports federations or associations to get out of their drawers and granaries of documents, to donate them to a public archive service in order to ensure the transmission of the memory of sport. « This shows that at the National Archives, we can deal with serious subjects such as the speech of Simone Veil but also – and fortunately – lighter ones like this one. The purpose of our work is to give historical depth to contemporary subjects ” continues Bruno Ricard, Director of the National Archives. Explanations with Cécile Fabris, Scientific Curator of the exhibition, Chief Heritage Curator and Head of the Department of Education, Culture and Social Affairs at the National Archives.

The exhibition (Re) Play! 100 years of Olympic Games in France The National Archives looks back on a century of organizing and hosting the Olympiad. What will visitors see?

The aim of this exhibition is to highlight the five editions of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Paris in 1900 and 1924, Chamonix also in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville-Tignes in 1992 ndlr) that have already taken place in France. It is organized in two parts: the first consists of visuals such as posters and photos from the collections of the National Archives and French heritage institutions (departmental archives, municipal, museums, national library etc.). As the holdings in the National Archives on the Olympic and Paralympic Games are very rich but not always very visual, research was conducted with other institutions and made it possible to involve the entire network.

The second is rather an incarnation of this Olympic history with objects from the sports museum of Cruas in Ardèche, from the Société de livraison des ouvrages olympiques (Solideo) for the development of actions for Paris 2024. A video of the opening ceremony of the Albertville Olympics in 1992, designed by the choreographer Philippe Decouflé, who agreed to lend it for the exhibition and which is kept by the INA, completes this arrangement. 

How do these documents make the different editions interact from a societal point of view?

Our job as archivists is to put events in context. We have therefore woven thematic threads between editions such as the presence of women in competitions. There were 22 in 1900, and this year, for the first time, there was strict parity among the 10,500 athletes. Another theme, that of the disabled. The 1992 edition in Albertville and Tignes marked an important turning point since it was the first time in the history of the Winter Games that the Paralympics took place in the same place as the Olympics. In 2024, inclusiveness is one of the important values carried by the organizing committee, including the inclusive signage of the Olympic Village, highlighted in the last showcase of the exhibition.

We also talk about the champions of the various editions, from Johnny Weissmuller in Paris in 1924, particularly emblematic with three gold medals and one bronze, to Alain Mimoun, the most important French athlete of the XX^e century, and Kathy Laurent, basketball player of the French wheelchair basketball team. 

Finally, another theme, the facilities with a return to the Olympic stadium in Colombes in 1924 and the Olympic village of Paris 2024 which is part of the landscape and will remain after the event by being transformed into housing as had been the case in Grenoble in 1968 where these facilities are still present in the city.

This exhibition will also be visible in several cities of Seine-Saint-Denis. Why did you choose this roaming?

The National Archives is located in Common plainspecifically to Pierrefitte-sur-Seine. It was therefore important for us to have a variation of this exhibition on this territory to allow the inhabitants to reclaim the history of Olympism near them. The Paris 2024 Games are not an epiphenomenon in Seine-Saint-Denis but result from an ancient history and tradition.

The first part of the exhibition, with the visuals, is common to all variations. However, the objects and videos will only be visible at the Palais-Royal. In Pierrefitte, this second part will be replaced by other visuals that will highlight the link of the territory of Plaine Commune with the Olympics, the Olympic spirit and the champions of this territory.

How is this exhibition a way for the Archives to seize the Games?

The heart of our job is to share the documents we keep and we were keen to expose these very evocative and emotional images. We wanted to show that the Paris 2024 Games are part of a tradition and this exhibition is for us a way to participate in the Olympic festival with an event that was voluntarily wanted in the public space to allow as many people as possible to benefit from. This explains why the relatively short texts are available in three languages – French, English and Spanish – so that they can be understood by all visitors.

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