History of the Olympic Laurel
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Laurel has been awarded to the Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus for his extensive work in sports for development. It was presented to him at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23, 2021. The Laurel Trophy presented with this honor contains some of the most invaluable relics of the several thousand-year histories of the Olympics.
The most valuable part of the Laurel Trophy in terms of historical and archeological importance is its stone base. It is actually a replica of two ash-blue marble carvings discovered in archeological excavations in 1878 and 1860 at Ancient Olympia, Greece. To understand why it is valuable, we must go back in time. It should be remembered that it is around the Panhellenic religious sanctuary at Ancient Olympia that the...