The Olympic Studies Centre

The Olympic Studies Centre will be closed to the public due to its annual inventory and the holidays from Monday 16 December 2024 to Friday 3 January 2025. We look forward to welcoming you back on 6 January 2025.

Your source of reference for Olympic knowledge

As world source of reference for Olympic knowledge, the mission of the IOC Olympic Studies Centre is to ensure that this knowledge is permanently enriched and made accessible.

Through our programmes and services, we support the work of the Olympic Movement but also foster Olympic education, teaching and research among professors, researchers, students and about 70 academic Olympic Studies and Research Centres (OSRCs) around the world.

As part of the IOC, we are uniquely placed to collect and share the most up-to-date and accurate information on Olympism.

Our unique resources cover all the key themes related to the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement and their place within society, and include the IOC historical archives, the official publications of the IOC and the Organising Committees of the Olympic Games as well as academic books, articles and journals.

The origins of The Olympic Studies Centre

The idea of creating an Olympic Studies Centre can be traced back to the reviver of the Modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who said shortly before his death:

The IOC Olympic Studies Centre was finally created under the Juan Antonio Samaranch presidency in 1982 with the objective to contribute to the understanding, education and studies of Olympism.