For over a century, major sporting events have been accompanied by images. With the rise of amateur photography at the end of the 19^th century, coinciding with the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, photography and sport have, in many respects, evolved together. The visibility given to sporting events necessarily entails the photographic image. In the quest for performance, in which effort and gestural skills fuse together, sport is conducted according to precise rules and is paraded as a spectacle when it is carried out with a view to competition. The staging of sport is relayed by the photographers who occupy positions around the stadium. The images that broadcast the exploits and promote the champions attract an ever larger and increasingly global audience. The sporting performance on which the cameras fixate becomes a demonstration of a social model. Watched and played everywhere, from the most industrialized to the most remote parts of the globe, sport as a spectacle is propelled into a world of media, economics and politics. Photography has undoubtedly played an essential role in this process, mobilizing a mass audience.

Sport in Focus unveils the vast photographic collections of the Olympic Museum and the Photo Elysée museum in Lausanne. During major competitions, photographs are intended to draw attention to the athletes' performances. By exploring a largely unpublished photographic heritage, this exhibition offers us a narrative that sheds light on sports photography and the Olympic Games in particular.

Nathalie Herschdorfer