The archives of the Olympic Organizing Committees

The article poses the following problem: the difficulty of accessing the publications and documents generated by the Olympic Organizing Committees.The difficulties arise for various reasons: the nature of the Olympic Committees wich disappear shortly after the end of the Games; the Olympic entities' lack of foresight demonstrated by their inadequate control over the conservation of documents for future use; the absence of norms concerning this topic on the part of the International Olympic Committee wich is the highest authority of the Olympic movement and of its representatives in different countries. The national Olympic Committees do not provide norms either, resulting in the lack of standards and regulations for Olympic archives on a national level.  As a consequence, the Olympic Committee documents are not properly archived. In the end, they are dispersed, some disappear, and ultimately, access to these fundamental sources for the study of the Olympic Games is seriously hindered.