Prolympo e.V

International Association of Olympic Memorabilia Collectors.

In recent years, a small but significant group of Olympic memorabilia collectors met on several occasions to discuss and resolve the urgent need to establish a network. During the 15th World Olympic Collectors Fair in Cologne in 2010, a meeting was arranged with founding member Roberto Gesta de Melo (now an honorary member) in Manaus, Brazil, where the decision was made to lay the foundation for an association named "Prolympo e.V" The Prolympo e.V association was officially launched on December 4, 2011, under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Karl Lennartz († May 2, 2014). On November 20, 2014, the group met again in Stuttgart and decided to restructure and continue the association. A new executive board was elected, comprising Dr. Christian Wacker (Germany) as Chairman, Jürgen Wagner († 2023) as Vice-Chairman, and Klaus Fink (Germany) as Managing Director and Treasurer. Ingrid O'Neil (USA) and Markus Osterwalder (Switzerland) were appointed as board members and auditors. Arnold Reichlin (Switzerland) and Wolfgang Fuhr (Germany) were elected as additional board members. Prolympo e.V was entered into the Hamburg Register of Associations in 2015 under registration number VR 69 AR 394/15.

The founding of Prolympo e.V brought to a close a story that had begun during the 14th World Olympic Collectors Fair in Warsaw in 2009. At that time, collector Roberto Gesta de Melo (Brazil) highlighted the urgent need to develop authoritative catalogs for collectors and handbooks for the general public. With the support of leading Olympic memorabilia collectors, the aim was to create catalogs capable of classifying medals, torches, mascots, pins, official reports, and other objects. An initial meeting of around 12 collectors took place in Brazil in 2010; the group was convinced that the vast knowledge held by the collecting community should be consolidated into a series of catalogs accessible to the wider public interested in Olympic memorabilia. This initiative was intended to help enthusiasts identify objects, monitor the market, and prevent the circulation of forgeries. Such catalogs are commonplace in most collecting markets—such as archaeology, art, furniture, and vintage cars—and it was considered long overdue to develop similar tools for the rapidly expanding market of Olympic memorabilia.

Prolympo e.V invites anyone interested in the subject to become a member and get involved. The association aims to conduct research, generate knowledge, and share it with the Olympic Movement. This knowledge is intended to be made accessible to collectors, scholars, and museums. Olympic memorabilia are historical artifacts and must therefore be recognized as part of the cultural heritage of sport. By preserving these objects and disseminating knowledge about them, Prolympo e.V makes a vital contribution to safeguarding key aspects of Olympic history for future Olympic education and research programs. Prolympo e.V fosters the exchange between collectors and sports museums, sports archives, Olympic research institutions, and other private collections, aiming to enhance museological, educational, and archival practices within the Olympic movement. To this end, the association plans to organize conferences, collectors' exchanges, trade fairs, and exhibitions. Prolympo e.V also offers services such as consulting, appraisals, loans, collection management, and publications. Transparency in the flow of information is a top priority. As its first project, the association is undertaking the publication of collectors' catalogs and handbooks—an initiative originally envisioned in 2009. Work on the initial project—a collectors' catalog covering all "Official Reports"—began even before the association was formally established; this catalog was completed in 2017 and printed later that same year. The next planned project is a book covering all Olympic torches and torch relays.

Prolympo e.V seeks to establish partnerships with national and international Olympic institutions, the IOC, National Olympic Committees (NOCs), museums, archives, libraries, and associations.

Prolympo is also a member of AICO (International Association of Olympic Collectors), an organization recognized by the IOC.

Reciprocal memberships have also been established with IMOS e.V (International Thematic Group for Olympics and Sport) and DAGS e.V (German Working Group of Sports Museums, Sports Archives, and Sports Collections).

We welcome inquiries regarding partnerships and memberships at any time! You can reach us at info@prolympo.org or via our website, www.prolympo.org.

The association currently has 26 members.

Hamburg, October 2026