Timeline Tunnel opens -Historic Jesse Owens – Chris Turner World Athletics Director

13 December 2024 – The latest expansion to the 3D online galleries of the Museum of World Athletics comes with the addition of a Timeline Tunnel which takes the visitor on a journey through Athletics history from 76BC to the present day.

 

Originally created, when the museum first opened in March 2021, to link the Entrance Hall to the World Athletics Championships gallery, the new tunnel now features seven historic eras, each with their own text summaries and photo galleries, and, on display next to them, related athletics artefacts.

The Timeline Tunnel offers a unique way to explore the story of athletics, with each artefact serving as a stepping stone along the path of key evolutions of our diverse disciplines worldwide. In each era-themed section, newly unearthed photos and artefacts from the World Athletics Archives enrich the experience.

“Then & Now”

As well as giving the MOWA better flexibility to display artefacts from World Athletics circuit and Area competitions, which do not naturally sit in the specialised World, Olympic or Indoor & Out of Stadia galleries, the Timeline Tunnel features a display of bronze sculptures which were bought by the IAAF in 2003 and now reside in the World Athletics Heritage Collection.

 

Flanking the sculptures are feature “Then & Now” photo montage walls. The playful side-by-side and precise alignment of their gestures highlights the technical and physical evolution of runners, jumpers and throwers, first as promising young athletes, then as champions at the height of their career. It’s both a celebration of growth and a source of inspiration for the next generation of athletes.

Jesse Owens

In addition to the Timeline Tunnel, there have been new additions of artefacts across the museum. First among these are the recently discovered, original, delicate handwritten results sheets from the long jump competition at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. They had been hidden in a file in the World Athletics Document Archive ever since those Games concluded.

These three truly historic pieces of faded green paper, transport us directly to the edge of the sandpit where German judges had to record Jesse Owens’ historic victory over Luz Long. These documents also reveal insights into past competition formats, such as the three rounds of three jumps held across an entire day.

Congratulations to our new Archive and Museum Manager Pierre-Jean Vazel for making this remarkable discovery.

The results sheets are now on display in the Jesse Owens display inside the Olympic Athletics Collection gallery.

Kind regards,

Chris Turner
World Athletics Director of Heritage & curator of MOWA

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For more information about MOWA and the World Athletics Heritage Collection – https://worldathletics.org/heritage

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