Olympic Games in Tokyo, Czechoslovakia

Might be a too obvious O, but not much else came to my mind... and I do like this set of stamps issued by the back then Czechoslovakia, on 26 October 1963, commemorating the Summer Olympic Games that took place in Tokyo the following year from 10-26th October - strange to have summer Olympics in October, regardless in which hemisphere of the world they are held.

The 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia, and the first time South Africa was barred from taking part due to its apartheid system in sports.(South Africa was, however, allowed to compete at the 1964 Summer Paralympics, also held in Tokyo, where it made its Paralympic Games debut.) These games were also the first to be telecast internationally without the need for tapes to be flown overseas, as they had been for the 1960 Olympics four years earlier.

A number of the sport disciplines are represented, starting from cannoeing, volleyball, wrestling, basketball, boxing, and my favorite out of these - gymnastics.

The top three nations who have left home with medals are USA (90 medals in total, out of which 36 gold), then USSR - six more than USA on the overall but also 6 less gold medals, and Japan, with a total of 29 medals, out of which 16 were gold. That is quite a striking difference in numbers between the first two, and then Japan being third.



Check out the other O's at today's Sunday Stamps edition.

Sports' Legends, Russia

In 2013, on two occasions, the Russian post issued stamps featuring Sports Legends who have participated in some of the Olympic Games or are anyhow related to them.
I know the world right now is in the midst of a football craze, so even though these are not football stamps, they are related to Russia, where the place of all that history is written these days (Personally, I couldn't care any less about it)

Up to this post, I wasn't familiar with any of these people featured here, so let's see what is it that they had done so that the Russian Post has decided to feature them on stamps.

-  Klavdiya Sergeyevna Boyarskikh (1939 - 2009),  was a Soviet cross-country skier who competed in the 1960s. In 1964, Boyarskikh won her first Soviet titles during thee Olympic Games held in Innsbruck where she had won the Gold Medal for both the 5km and 10km race as well as the one for the 3 x 5 km Women's Relay Team.



- Vsevolod Mikhailovich Bobrov (1922 –  1979) was a Soviet athlete, who excelled in football, bandy and ice hockey. He is considered one of the best Russians ever in each of those sports. After he quit football in 1953 he turned to ice hockey, which he had taken up when it was started in the Soviet Union in 1946. He was one of the first ice hockey players in the Soviet Union and internationally he participated with the Soviet national team at several World Championships, including their first tournament in 1954, as well as the 1956 Winter Olympics, where the Soviets won the gold medal.


- Tatyana Averin was born on June 25 1950 in Gorky. She was a Soviet athlete (speed skating, an honoured Master of Sports, an Olympic champion in skating (100 m and 3000 m, 1976), the absolute champion of the USSR (1979), as well as the world champion (1978).


- Pierre de Coubertin (1863 - 1937) was a French educator and historian, and founder of the International Olympic Committee, as well as its second President. He is considered the father of the modern Olympic Game.  The Pierre de Coubertin medal (also known as the True Spirit of Sportsmanship medal) is an award given by the International Olympic Committee to athletes that demonstrate the spirit of sportsmanship in the Olympic Games.

- Sir Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann  (1899 –  1980)  was a German-born British neurologist who established the Paralympic Games in England. The Jewish doctor, who had fled Nazi Germany just before the start of the Second World War, is considered to be one of the founding fathers of organised physical activities for people with a disability.
At the 1956 Stoke Mandeville Games, Guttmann was awarded the Sir Thomas Fearnley Cup by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for his meritorious achievement in service to the Olympic movement through the social and human value derived from wheelchair sports.


Nice to see not only athletes, but also people who have in other ways contributed to the development of the Olympic Games.

For more of the S-related posts, you know the drill, visit today's edition of Sunday Stamps!

Olympic Games - Moscow 1980, USSR

Here I am back to Sunday Stamps after being absent for a while (will spare you the excuses..)

And I am back for the subject of Red...and I think I have quite a lot of red here....though I am not quite sure what particular shade of red this is...is this what you call crimson or I am speaking nonsense? I am seriously terrible and a bit illiterate when it comes to shades of colours and I find it really fascinating how some people can distinguish among dozens of different shades of red, blue, orange.....

Anyways, for this red topic, I have this commemorative FDC issued by the USSR in 1976 for the (then) upcoming Summer Olympic Games that were gonna be held in Moscow in 1980.
The only two cities to bid for the 1980 Summer Olympics were Moscow and Los Angeles. The choice between them was made on 23 October 1974 in the 75th IOC Session in Vienna, Austria.
However, they didn't go without some drama since were disrupted by another, even larger, boycott led by the United States in protest at the 1979 Soviet war in Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum on January 20, 1980 that the US would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan within one month.65 countries and regions invited did not take part in the 1980 Olympics. Many of these followed the United States' boycott initiative, while others cited economic reasons for not coming.

Many of the boycotting nations participated instead in the Liberty Bell Classic (also known as the "Olympic Boycott Games") in Philadelphia.

It is really unbelievable how politics interferes everywhere, literally everywhere...and I hate it!!  But when did the Governments care about that anyways...

On this FDC you can see the Kremlin in Moscow,  the cultural and political centre of the former USSR. Nowadays it is still the main cultural and political centre of Russia.
I bought it at the collectors' market in Alicante, Spain during my visit few months ago.

That would be my contribution for today. For more shades of red, visit today's edition of Sunday Stamps 

Sochi 2014 and other Olympic Games

Well, first of all, Happy Holidays to everyone! Hope the year ahead brings you love, joy, happy moments and, of course, lots of great mail :)
Been a while since I participated in the Sunday Stamps, but the entire year of 2013 was slow in general when it came to postcards, letters, blogs' updates...I am not into making New Year resolutions, but I do want to make 2014 a much better one mail-wise...
Today's Sunday Stamps' topic is about Sochi 2014, and other Olympic Games...and having this lovely envelope with the first day cancellations issued by the Russian post, I just couldn't resist participating...and I hope this will be a good start for taking part in as many Sunday Stamps' posts as possible =)

The event shall take place from 6 to 23 February 2014, in the Russian town of Sochi with some events held in the resort town of Krasnaya Polyan. On the envelope you can see the 3 Olympic mascots (the Amur Leopard, the European Hare and the Polar Bear).
I used to be much more into watching this kind of events when I was younger, but now, I barely watch TV and just follow sports online mainly...when Rafael Nadal is on court =)
Macedonia is going to have 3 representatives in this event, one in Apline skiing (men), and two in Cross-country skiing (men and women).
Not having any high hopes, knowing the conditions and the support Macedonian sports men and women get here, but I do wish they do have some great achievements which may open some doors for them in the future =)

Well, the main theme for today IS Sochi indeed, but it does open room for some other Olympic stamps so I decided to include two more (despite that as a general rule I do not include more than one country per post, unless it is some joint issue)

this second envelope is from Hong Kong with one fantastic mini sheet issued on July 27, 2012 to commemorate the 30th Olympic Games, released on day one of the London Games. These stamps form an exuberant circle that is bursting with sporting action.

the last one is a Serbian FDC, commemorating the XXI Olympic Winter Games that were held from February 12-28, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada.
Boy, it seemed as if this event in Vancouver took place just last year, but four years have passed indeed since then! Time simply flies so fast =/

well, I hope you liked my choice for today =)
See what others have picked, by clicking on the big button below

Viet Nam

I think that this is not just the loveliest Vietnamese cover I have received, but one of the loveliest covers in general as well.

The initial purpose of the trade was a postcard or more precisely a maxi-card, which i honestly never expected to arrive packed in something like this.
The stamps are from 2008/2009.
The 2008 stamps are the one in the top-right-corner, which is from a joint issue with Singapore, presenting Flora, and here the (in)famous Durian is shown. Regardless of all the stories I had heard about the Durian, I would LOVE to try it.
And the other 2008 stamp is the Olympic one, or the only one which is not put the way it should be. It represents the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, and this stamp in particular presents the Wushu, which is a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese Martial Arts.

Regarding the 2009 stamps, the most present is the Fish one (set of 4 stamps), whose scientific name is Botia Macracanthus, or if you find that hard to remember, you can use its widely accepted name of Clown Loach.
Another 2009 stamp is the Year of the Tiger one (from what ive seen, EXTREMELY popular philatelic topic). It comes in a set of 2 stamps.
And the last one is the stamp with the flower, again coming from a set of 4 stamps.

Thanks Dao!

XXI Winter Olympic Games. Vancouver-2010, Ukraine

A FANTASTIC FDC/Cover!

I know the Olympics are way behind us now, but such great stamps are always more than appreciated.

The Ukrainian post office issued these on 05.02.2010, and the details about them are as follows, starting from left to right:
freestyle, face value – 2.00 UAH
ski race, face value – 1.50 UAH
luge, face value – 2.00 UAH
biathlon, face value– 1.50 UAH

Size of stamps – 24,36 х 50,46 mm.
Comb perforation – 11 1/2

Potection of stamps: microprint "В. Таран"; light elements of stamps luminesce under UV-light
Stamps are multicolored; printing process – offset, foil embossing

DDR

This actually wasnt something sent to me, but to my neighbour who used to live across my house and who had probably had a penpal in DDR back then. Since both she and her mum knew that my mum was interested in stamps, they gave her a number of envelopes years ago. And of course, it is me who had inherited them :)
It actually feels special to own these, coz personally

There are three stamps on the envelope, issued in 1980.
The small green one on the left is a definitive from a set of 3 representing Birds, while the other one is also from a set of 3, dedicated to the Olympic games in Moscow, representing Judo.

Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Canada

There is no better time to post this than today!

the miniature sheet was issued regarding the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, that begin today and will last until 28th February. In the sheet the 5 different stamp designs are presented, among which the 3 Official Olympic Mascots, Miga - the Sea Bear, Sumi - the Thunderbird and Quatchi - the Sasquatch.


None of the three mascots actually exist in real life: Miga the Sea Bear is a combination of an orca and a sea otter. Sumi, the Paralympic mascot, is a Thunderbird but looks more like a bear with wings.
And Quatchi is the first Sasquatch in history to actually make an appearance before human beings.

I doubt ill be able to catch much of the Olympics (lots of work + bad time zone), but however it is more than great to own this mini sheet.

Too all those that are gonna be following the broadcasts, enjoy it and let the best ones win!