The Olympic Order, established in 1975, is the highest award of the Olympic Movement. It is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, i.e. recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport. Traditionally, the IOC bestows the Olympic Order upon the chief national organiser(s) at the closing ceremony of each respective Olympic Games.
History
The Olympic Order was established in May 1975 by the International Olympic Committee as a successor to the Olympic Diploma of Merit. The Olympic Order originally had three grades (gold, silver and bronze). In 1984, at the 87th IOC Session in Sarajevo (Yugoslavia), it was decided that there would be no distinction between the silver and bronze order.
Design
The insignia of the Olympic Order is in the form of a collar (or chain), in Gold, Silver or Bronze according to grade; the front of the chain depicts the five rings of the Olympic Movement, flanked on either side by kotinos emblem (olive wreath). A lapel badge, in the form of miniature five rings and kotinos in Gold, Silver and Bronze according to grade, is presented to recipients to wear as appropriate.
Recipients
The following is a list of recipients of the Olympic Order. Some no longer have their orders, as they have been withdrawn.
Gold Olympic Order
Silver Olympic Order
Bronze Olympic Order
| Year | Recipient | Country | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Mr. Charles Debeur | Belgium | |
| Mr. Gyula Hegyi | Hungary | ||
| Mr. John Kasyoka | Kenya | ||
| Mrs. Lia Manoliu | Romania | ||
| Mrs. Ellen Preis | Austria | ||
| Jacques Thiébault | France | ||
| 1976 | Mr. Helmut Behrendt | East Germany | |
| Mr. Antonio dos Reis Carneiro | Brazil | ||
| Mr. Walter Jhung | South Korea | ||
| Mr. Abderrahman Khatib | Morocco | ||
| Mrs. Zofia Mironova | Soviet Union | ||
| Mr. Kleanthis Palaiologos | Greece | ||
| Mr. Haim Wein | Israel | ||
| 1977 | Mr. Gunnar Hansen | Denmark | |
| Mrs. Nadia Lekarska | Bulgaria | ||
| Mr. Edoardo Mangiarotti | Italy | ||
| Mr. Alberto Nariño Cheyne | Colombia | ||
| Mr. Christian d'Oriola | France | ||
| Mr. Dutta Ray | India | ||
| Mr. Roberto Richards Aguiar | Cuba | ||
| Mr. René de Raeve | Belgium | ||
| 1978 | Mr. Zafar Ali | Pakistan | |
| Mihailo Andrejević | Yugoslavia | ||
| Mrs. Ludmilla Tourischeva | Soviet Union | ||
| Colonel Hassine Hamouda | Tunisia | ||
| Mr. Harald Jespersen | Denmark | ||
| Mrs. Ingrid Keller de Schiavoni | Guatemala | ||
| Mr. Surjit Singh Majithia | India | ||
| Mr. Paulo Martins Meira | Brazil | ||
| Mr. Al Oerter | United States | ||
| Mr. Michel Ravarino | Monaco | ||
| Mr. Charles Riolo | Switzerland | ||
| Mr. Yoshinori Suzuki | Japan | ||
| Mr. Hugo Virgilio Tedin | Argentina | ||
| Mr. José Gamarra Zorrilla | Bolivia | ||
| 1979 | Mr. Jeronymo Baptista Bastos | Brazil | |
| Mr. Alfredo Hohagen Díez Canseco | Peru | ||
| Mrs. Maria Kwaśniewska | Poland | ||
| Colonel Marcel Leclef | Belgium | ||
| Mr. Imre Németh | Hungary | ||
| Mrs. Emmy Schwabe | Austria | ||
| Mr. Otto Szymiczek | Greece | ||
| Mrs. Lydia Zanchi | Switzerland | ||
| 1980 | Mr. Sigge Bergman | Sweden | |
| Mrs. Elisabeth Ferris | United Kingdom | ||
| Mrs. Dawn Fraser | Australia | ||
| Mr. Alex Erere | United Kingdom | ||
| Mrs. Anita DeFrantz | United States | ||
| Mr. Jean-Claude Ganga | Congo | ||
| Mr. Marcello Garroni | Italy | ||
| Mr. Michel Henault | France | ||
| Mr. John Hennessy | United Kingdom | ||
| Mr. Luis E. Hurtado | Panama | ||
| Mr. Joseph Jungmann | Czechoslovakia | ||
| Mr. Clare McDermott | Canada | ||
| Mr. Donato Martucci | Italy | ||
| Mr. Geoffrey Miller | United Kingdom | ||
| Mr. Robert Pariente | France | ||
| Mr. John Rodda | United Kingdom | ||
| Mr. Hussein Sejean | Lebanon | ||
| Mr. Walter Siegenthaler | Switzerland | ||
| Mr. Mustapha Thraya | Tunisia | ||
| Mr. Alexander Yermakov | Soviet Union | ||
| 1981 | Mr. Slaheddine Baly | Tunisia | |
| Mr. Max Bangerter | Switzerland | ||
| Brigadier Henrique Alves Callado | Portugal | ||
| Mr. Gregor Hradetzky | Austria | ||
| Mr. Károly Kárpáti | Hungary | ||
| J. Raymond Owen | United Kingdom | ||
| Mrs. Irina Rodnina | Soviet Union | ||
| Mr. Kenneth A. Ryan | Ireland | ||
| Mrs. Irena Szewińska | Poland | ||
| Mr. Eduardo Yáñez Zavala | Chile | ||
| 1982 | Mr. Waldemar Baszanowski | Poland | |
| Mr. Jaime Munoz Camposano | Ecuador | ||
| Mr. João da Costa | Brazil | ||
| Mr. Paul Elvstrøm | Denmark | ||
| Mr. Sinan Erdem | Turkey | ||
| Mr. Giuseppe Sabelli Fioretti | Italy | ||
| Mr. Gert Fredriksson | Sweden | ||
| Mr. Arild Honne | Norway | ||
| Mr. Sixten Jernberg | Sweden | ||
| Mr. Leonid Khomenkov | Soviet Union | ||
| Mr. Guillermo Montoya Sanchez | Mexico | ||
| Ridha Mrad | Tunisia | ||
| Mr. Luis Chiriboga Parra | Ecuador | ||
| Mr. E. Howard Radford | Canada | ||
| Mr. Albert Riethausen | West Germany | ||
| Mr. Donald Rowlands | New Zealand | ||
| Mr. Toni Sailer | Austria | ||
| Mr. Vladimir Smirnov | Soviet Union | ||
| Mr. Ulrich Wehling | East Germany | ||
| Mr. D. J. Williams | Bermuda | ||
| 1983 | Mr. Antônio Carlos Almeida Braga | Brazil | |
| Mr. Nikolai Gueorguiev | Bulgaria | ||
| Mr. Nigel Hacking | United Kingdom | ||
| Mr. Erhard Georg Friedrich Hoehne | East Germany | ||
| Mr. Guipro Koffi | Ivory Coast | ||
| Antonio Losada | Chile | ||
| Mr. Raden Maladi | Indonesia | ||
| Mr. Janusz Piewcewicz | Poland | ||
| Mr. Yücel Seçkiner | Turkey | ||
| Mrs. Esther Roth-Shahamorov | Israel | ||
| 1984 | Mr. Francisco Alguersuari Durán | Spain | |
| Mr. Duarte Manuel de Almeida Bello | Portugal | ||
| Mr. Siegfried Brietzke | West Germany | ||
| Mr. Muhammad Naqi Butt | Pakistan | ||
| Mr. Bogomil Nonev | Bulgaria | ||
| Mr. Alberto Passadore | Uruguay | ||
| Mr. Jozsef Szalay | Hungary | ||
| Mr. Ashenafi Youria | Ethiopia |
Recipients with missing data
Following is the list of recipients of Olympic Order with some missing data like year of award, country and colour of award.
Trivia
Elena Mukhina became the youngest recipient of the Olympic Order in 1982 when she was 22 years old at the time of her award. She was also the only member of the Olympic Order who never competed at the Olympics.
Carlos Arthur Nuzman and Nadia Comaneci are the two only athletes to be awarded the Olympic Order twice.
