Milan exhibition highlights 3,000 years of Olympic history

With just over two months to go until the start of the Winter Olympics in Italy, three thousand years of the Games’ history is on display in Milan.

Old and new have been woven together from ancient statutes to the golden running spikes Michael Johnson’s wore in the 1996 Olympics.

“It shows that all these three big civilisations [Greek, Etruscan and Roman], all brought something and they have something to bring to us, and that the modern-day Olympics, they also have heritage, they also bought novelty," says Lionel Pernet, Director of Lausanne’s Cantonal Museum of Archaeology and History and one of the curators of the exhibition.

Ancient and modern have been woven together, with old vases decorated with sporting scenes sitting alongside modern athletic equipment.

At first glance the pairings might seem unusual, but the idea is to show how sport and its values are something passed down through time.

“We can understand that the history of art and the history of civilisation, the history of our world, is something that goes back in the past, and it is continuing in the present,” says Giovanna Forlanelli, President of Fondazione Luigi Rovati.

"We are looking to the people that run, that make sports in the same way in which the Greek looked at these athletes,” she says.

For this reason, the golden running shoe designed for Michael Johnson and used during the 1996 Atlanta Games fits perfectly alongside a terracotta foot from the Hellenistic age.

A vase depicting running athletes is placed next to the baton signed by the Italian relay team that won the 4x100 meters at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Anne-Cécile Jaccard, curator at the Olympic Museum of Lausanne and curator of the exhibition in Milan, says while the values may remain the same, some things have changed.

The modern games in 1900 marked a major turning point.

“One thing that appeared are women, because they were not allowed to compete during the Olympic Games, because they had the Heraean Games, so this is the novelty,” says Jaccard.

Perhaps most significantly, one can see is the ancient Etruscan Tomb of the Olympic Games famous for its frescoes depicting athletic and equestrian contests from around 530 BC.

Also on show are the boxing gloves of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics.

Pernet says he thinks it is a good way to bring in people that would perhaps not usually go to see an archaeological exhibition but would be attracted to see the material culture.

“Archaeology is material culture, of more recent Games, to have the opportunity to think about this long history through these modern objects. So for me, it's a really good match.”

In addition to sporting equipment, there are medals, statues, posters, Olympic torches, coins, frescoes, and painted scenes.

All ways telling the story of an event, a sporting achievement, competition, and a moment of gathering and competition.

The exhibition at the Fondazione Rovati in Milan runs to the 22 March.