John Ian Wing: Making Olympic history

1956 was a tough year to be holding the Olympics. Political issues -- from the Suez Canal crisis to Russia's invasion of Hungary -- threatened to dwarf the biggest sporting event in the world. John Ian Wing, then 17, was apprehensively watching the developments from his home in Melbourne, host of the Games that year.

When the Russian and Hungarian teams met in the finals of the water polo event, and the match had to be stopped after a riot broke out between the team members, Wing knew he had to do something.

"I had always been interested in sports, so I followed the Olympics in Melbourne quite closely. I was very disappointed and unhappy with what was happening, like everyone else in the city. I thought that rather than complaining about it, I'd write a letter with a solution for the organizers. I had an idea that I thought could solve their problem," he remembers.

His suggestion was brilliant in it simplicity. Have all the athletes walk as one around the stadium, erasing even the few distinctions that kept them apart while in competition.

"War, politics and nationality will be all forgotten, what more could anybody want if the whole world could be made as one nation," he optimistically wrote in his letter.

Wing dropped the letter in the letterbox of the Organizing Committee on Thursday, three days before the Closing Ceremony. Disappointed at seeing nothing in the next day's papers about any changes to the ceremonies, he decided to spend Saturday at the movies instead.

When he came out of the cinema, he saw a group of people watching the Closing Ceremony from a shop window. "I decided to take a look, and I saw all the athletes marching."

The march took everyone, especially the media, by surprise. The International Olympic Committee later released a statement about the letter that was received from an unknown Chinese boy.

"The attention that my letter got surprised me. I didn't realize the coverage would be that big. By then, I decided to keep quiet. After all, how can I tell my schoolmates it was I who wrote the letter? I was also afraid that my parents would scold me for writing to such an important person."

A week later, however, Wing decided to write another letter to Sir Wilfrid Kent Hughes, head of the organizing committee for the Melbourne Games. "I gave him my name and address but told him that I wanted to remain anonymous. It was a request he honored, although a few days later, an Olympic official came by my father's shop with an Olympic medal from me on behalf of Sir Hughes."

John Ian Wing (Image: published with permission)It was this second letter that a graduate student named Shane Cahill found 30 years later among the papers of Sir Hughes, who had by then passed on. Cahill was working on a thesis about the Olympics.

"I had already been living in London for sometime and didn't realize that they were looking for me. One morning in 1986, at around 2am, I was woken up by a phone call. 'Are you John Ian Wing,' the voice on the other line asked. 'Yes,' I said. 'Do you know that everyone in Australia is looking for you?'"

After thirty years of anonymity, Wing finally got the recognition he deserved. He was a guest of honor at the Sydney Games in 2000 and even had the main road leading from the Olympic Village to the main stadium named after him.

"I'm very very proud that the Chinese are hosting the Olympics. It's a chance for China to show the world what it is all about and what the people are like. The Games will probably be the best thing there ever."

"I know that China can do something spectacular, that the Games will be spectacular. But will they achieve their one world, one dream? That can only be done in the Closing Ceremony. If the athletes take part in the Closing Ceremony and join up as one nation, then Beijing will have their dream. This is what my legacy is."