Exhibition Report from Bernard Doherty and Judy Kennett

Olymphilex 2000 was a specialised sport philately exhibition under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee held at the AMP Centre Point Tower, Sydney and the Royal Australian Mint, Canberra in conjunction with the Sydney Olympics.

The Sydney venue comprised 46 trade stands on two levels at the AMP Centrepoint Tower, namely the Grand Hall and International Level.  Whilst the Court of Honour (20 frames), invited exhibits (20 frames), FIP competition entries (554 frames) and 27 Literature exhibits were allocated space on the previously mentioned levels as well as the Mezzanine level.  Included in the competitive exhibits were 18 frames of Olympic memorabilia.

The second venue was located in Canberra where the Promotion class (349 frames of competitive exhibits) was displayed at the Royal Australian Mint, Gallery.  The Canberra exhibition was opened on 13 September; this causing some logistical problems due the projected arrival dates of some national commissioners being after the opening date.  Similarly, exhibits at the latter location were dismounted and transported to Sydney on 28 September to ensure they were available for commissioner's departures.  The Chief Minister of the ACT, Kate Carnell officially opened the exhibition [pictured top right:  Ed Druce makes a presentation to Kate Carnell, ACT Chief Minister].

A high point on the opening day in Canberra was the short-lived Australia Post shop which sold stamps and covers from the Games issue.  The stamps were cancelled with the special Canberra opening day postmarker.  The table did a brisk trade in the three hours that it was open for business.  Impressions of this postmarker will be hard to find, perhaps even scarce, since the selling point operated only from 11am to 2pm on the opening day. The ACT Philatelic Council had a limited number of covers produced to mark the occasion.  These are available from the Secretary, ACT Philatelic Council, GPO Box 9800, Canberra, 2601 at a cost of $3 per cover.

The exhibition was well attended, contributing factors being the weather which was fine and sunny for the duration of the exhibition, as well as the availability of specially minted coins and the Australia Post, Gold Medal Winners stamps.

As an experiment, a single Gold, Silver and Bronze medal was awarded at the exhibition, these replacing the usual Grand Prix awards.  The Gold Medal was awarded to Franceska Rapkin (UK) for The 1936 Olympic Games; the Silver Medal went to Pierangelo Brivio (Italy) for Soccer; and the Bronze Medal was won by Valeriano Genovese (Italy) for The Fascinating World of Tennis.

The system used for the determination of the three medals was as follows.  All exhibits in the FIP Class that received 90 or more points were considered to be finalist.  Each member of the jury, during its last working session was asked to rank the five finalists from one to five and keep the results to themselves in a sealed envelope.  At the Palmares, the finalists were listed on a display board with the titles of their exhibits.  The FIP Consultant was the master of the ceremony and chose from a hat each of the finalists in turn.  When a finalist was named, the jury, who were seated at the side of the stage then held up a large card with the relevant number of their choosing.  These numbers (for the ten jurors) were then counted (in fact by everybody) and entered on the display board. The cards used for each round of voting were collected after each vote so they could not be used again.

Left:  The display from the Philatelic Society of Canberra Junior Group grabs a young collector's interest.

The awards ceremony was modelled on an Olympic awards ceremony.  The three winners (represented by stand-ins for none of the contestants were present) were invited to a dais and were presented with their medal and a bouquet of flowers.  The Gold medal was presented by Knud Mohr (President of FIP), the Silver medal by Manfred Bergman (IOC) and the Bronze medal by Bernie Beston (Chairman of the Organising Committee).  The audience adjudged it as very successful and the format is recommended for competitions of a similar nature held in the future.

The remainder of the exhibitors in the FIP competition received awards relative to the usual point ranges with the following results: 90+ - five; 85+ - eight; 80+ - twenty two; 75+ - sixteen; 70+ - twenty six; 65+ - nineteen; and 60+ - sixteen.  The Promotion Class received medals with resultant points in the following national ranges: 80+ - one; 75+ - nine; 70+ - twenty one; 65+ - eighteen; 60+ - six; and Certificate of Participation - seventeen.

A special vote of thanks must go to all those who served on the Organising Committee and as volunteers.  The APF recognises that this exhibition presented new and unique demands on everyone.

Australian results in the Promotion Competition were:.

 [ Source:  APF News, February 2001 ]