Mirotvor Schwartz

OLYMPIANS ON STAMPS

This checklist contains more than ten thousand postage stamps that depict Olympic athletes. Not all of these stamps are generally considered to be "Olympic" -- quite a few stamps have been issued to commemorate Olympians' non-Olympic athletic achievements (such as world or European championship victories). There are even some stamps that depict certain Olympians not as athletes, but as non-athletic celebrities (such as General George Patton or Her Royal Highness Princess Anne).

I sincerely hope this checklist will prove to be a valuable reference tool for all my fellow Olympic topical collectors. It might help them better organize their collections, prepare thematic exhibits or update want lists.

The checklist consists of three parts:

-- In Part One, all the information is organized by stamp.

-- In Part Two, all the information is organized by athlete.

-- In Part Three, all the information is organized by Olympiad, sport, event and result.

All stamp numbers are given according to Scott catalog, except for the stamps that have not been listed in Scott but have been listed in Michel (those numbers are marked with "Mi" prefix). No stamps that have not been listed in either Scott or Michel have been included in the checklist.

I would like to thank the following people, publishers and websites, whose contribution has been invaluable to the information compilation process:

-- Mark C. Maestrone & Joan R. Bleakley (the authors of "Olympians on Stamps: 1896 - 1994")

-- Victor Afanasiev (known as "vicaf60" on forumuuu.com, the best Russian collector forum on the Internet)

-- Scott, Michel and Domfil (the editors of world-famous postage stamp catalogs)

-- Sports-Reference.com (the greatest reference website ever for Olympic data)

-- Wikipedia (the greatest reference website ever, period)

Note that the checklist is being updated quite frequently. New stamps that depict Olympians are being issued. More stamps are being added to Scott and Michel catalogues. Plus, new information regarding Olympic athletes on already-issued stamps often comes to my attention.

Needless to say, this checklist will never be 100% perfect, but I will always strive to make it better.

Thus, if you notice any errors, imperfections or missing data, I will be more than happy to hear from you!

Please send all the questions, corrections and other correspondence to pashtet71@yahoo.com

Thank you and enjoy!

PLEASE NOTE: Some changes to Olympic results that happened due to numerous recent disqualifications might not be reflected in the checklist.