CHINA: A sport of its own - Olympic pins and autograph collectors descend on Beijing

Record ID: 329507

  • Title: CHINA: A sport of its own - Olympic pins and autograph collectors descend on Beijing
  • Date: 10th August 2008
  • Summary: FLIGHT INFORMATION BOARD AT BEIJING INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LU ZHIYUAN, A 13-YEAR-OLD CHINESE BOY, ASKING ATHLETES ARRIVING THERE FOR THEIR AUTOGRAPHS LU SHOWING AUTOGRAPHS HE COLLECTED IN HIS NOTEBOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) LU ZHIYUAN, 13-YEAR-OLD COLLECTOR OF AUTOGRAPHS OF OLYMPIC COMPETITORS, SAYING: "I wanted to try my luck and see if I can meet any famous athletes here and get their autographs." LU AND OTHER COLLECTORS RECEIVING AUTOGRAPHS FROM FEMALE ATHLETE
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA7KCA68QW9L53JG6U8K3H2TREG
  • Story Text: Collectors are gathering in Beijing from across the world in search of Olympic pins and athletes' autographs.
    Pin collectors from around the world are gathering at Olympic venues to haggle and trade -- and hopefully get their hands on the mother of all pins at Beijing.
    Known as the official spectator sport, pin collecting has become a huge event with thousands of people trading the 5,000 plus pins made at each Games, with usually one pin becoming elusive.
    The choice is overwhelming. Each country makes pins for its athletes, there are media pins, sponsor pins, and licensed pins made by the country hosting the Games that are sold in souvenir shops.

    "This is not a modern thing, but there is a big market for it definitely. You know, there are a lot of collectors from New York, from L.A., up from England, from Germany, and Olympic collecting has been famous since 1924 as far as I have known," said Louis Barbosa from Los Angeles, the United States, who started collecting pins in 1984 when a Japanese man gave him a pin.
    Another American collector Leonard Braun had pins all over his blue vest, saying collecting Olympic pins gives him more pleasure than collecting anything else.

    "This hobby I like because there is kind of one-on-on interaction with people. Other things I've collected in the past is something you did all by yourself, you know, sitting in a room, cataloguing stamps. You know, I enjoyed when I did it, but it's very different from this. This is much more fun for me," Braun said.
    By observing foreign collectors, Chinese woman Lu Xiuli also started to follow suits.

    "I just think this is beautiful so I want to exchange them. I don't have many pins, that's why I think they are so beautiful, just for this reason. I don't have so many like they do," said Lu, who is helping the foreign media at the Olympics.
    Pin trading is believed to date back to the first modern Games at Athens in 1896 when athletes and officials were given cardboard discs to identify themselves which they then traded with each other.
    It was not until the 1912 Games in Stockholm that souvenir pins and official Olympic Games pins were produced to sell to spectators with the term "pin" rather than badge applied.
    But collectors say the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid was a pivotal juncture as the village was so small that everyone congregated on the main street which was closed to traffic and ideal for pin trading.
    At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the first Olympic pin collector's guide was published and pin clubs started to be set up all over the world -- and the first copies started to appear.
    Meantime, other collectors, including 13-year-old Lu Zhiyuan, were busy at the Beijing International Airport, collecting autographs from Olympic athletes landing at the airport.
    Lu said he has collected more than 300 autographs in his first six days at the airport, where he stands waiting everyday from 11 a.m. (0300GMT) to 10 p.m. (1400GMT), waiting to pounce on athletes.

    "I wanted to try my luck and see if I can meet many athletes here and get their autographs," said Lu.
    The Olympic Games will open on Friday (August 8).
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