Back in 2008 – on a trip to Finland – I spotted the Olympic rings over the rather unassuming entrance to some municipal pitches in Lahti (pictured above). Turns out that these pitches were used for some of the football matches during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Ireland won a single medal (silver) at those games, which were the first to feature China and the USSR, as well as welcoming back Japan and Germany after WWII. As Irish athletes prepare to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janiero at the end of this week, it also worth remembering of another Olympic figure, whose anniversary occurred 36 years ago today. Lord Killanin – or Michael Morris – handed over his role as President of the International Olympic Committee on this day in 1980 to Juan Antonio Samaranch, thus ending eight years as the sixth president of the modern Olympics.
He died on April 25th, 1999 and is buried in the ‘New” Cemetery in Bohermore, here in Galway.