A dream about to be transformed into a reality....
"At the closing ceremony, all winners from each Olympic event will form one group and will merge together to form a Victory Parade Procession. They will stride around the track once to the cheers of the crowd and then form up in front of the rostrum for a special ceremony. "
This second idea was proposed to the IOC back in 1988 by John Ian Wing. But it is an idea that sprang from John's own childhood where he remembers becoming captivated by the superhero end-of-episode climaxes of the likes of Superman and Tarzan, which always provoked loud cheers and excitement in the auditorium. It was always such an exciting finale and John thought to himself wouldn't it be great if the momentum of this spectacle could somehow cross over into the closing ceremony for the Olympic Games! He was awe struck by the sheer spectacle of the opening ceremony but he also noticed how boring the closing ceremony was. In fact, athletes didn't take part in the final ceremony.
And so after the 1956 Olympic Games, John wrote a second letter to the Olympic organizers with his innovative suggestion for the closing celebrations.
He wrote to Wilfrid Kent Hughes, the chief executive for the Melbourne Games, and asked for a meeting of minds to be arranged. John never received a reply, but 45 years later, John was presented with a copy of his original letter with "Replied" clearly written at the top of the page. If Mr Kent Hughes had addressed his letter to Mr Wing, then John's father would have opened it and not knowing his son was involved with the Olympic Games, would probably have thrown it away.
When John watched the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, his idea always came flooding back to him and he knew that one day he would approach the IOC with his new idea. In 1988, he wrote to President Samaranch of the IOC and introduced himself as the boy who wrote the letter back in 1956 that changed the closing ceremony forever. President Samaranch invited John to meet him at the IOC Headquarters in Lausanne. During their discussions, John put his new idea for the closing ceremony to the President who then asked him to put it all down on paper.
It was audacious for a young boy of 17 to have the courage to write to the authorities, even more courageous that he wrote to the president of the IOC requesting a meeting to discuss his idea.
The IOC has now approved the plan and has finally incorporated it into its Technical Manual for Ceremonies.
The following pages on this site are taken from the original correspondence that occurred between John and the Olympic officials in which they were discussing the plans for the Victory Parade.
John's dream is about to become a reality.
Oliver Pfeiffer, BA (hons)
Freelance writer