Helena KLIMA is working on this project as an SNF doctoral student. She holds a Master’s degree in Sports Science and French Literature from the University of Lausanne (2017). Before joining the project, she was working as part of her Master’s thesis on Charles de Coubertin, father of the founder of the modern Olympic Games.
In this SNF project, her job is to investigate the 69 members co-opted to the IOC during the presidency of the American Avery Brundage (1952-1972). By adopting a prosopographical approach, her study aims to shed light on the IOC personalities in order to better identify the social, political and cultural characteristics they have in common. Placed on the crossroads of individual and collective history, it attempts to reconstruct a more complete portrait of this group than the one that has now been drawn up. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the structure, mode of operation and decision-making processes of one of the most important international sports institutions. Since the start of the project in September 2018, Helena has familiarized herself with the state of research, developed her thesis project and contributed to the creation of a computer database adapted to the specificities of this project. Currently, she is focusing on the creation of biographical cards from members’ personal files in the IOC archives in Lausanne by cross-referencing them with their correspondence with Avery Brundage (Avery Brundage Collection, University of Illinois).
Contact: helena.klima@unil.ch
