Ed Hula awarded Coubertin Medal on Olympic Day in Lausanne

Around the Rings founder Ed Hula received the Pierre de Coubertin medal, honoring his outstanding contributions and commitment to the Olympic movement and in the spirit of Olympism, by the IOC, on friday in Lausanne.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach presented the prestigious Coubertin medal to the longtime ATR editor-in-chief, appropriately, on Olympic Day, at Olympic House, in the Olympic Capital.

Inspired by the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, Hula created the Around the Rings brand in the mid-1990′s, a media outlet dedicated to covering not only the Olympic Games, but also the daily business of the International Olympic Committee, Olympic host organizing committees, International Federations, and national Olympic committees.

“Dear Ed, over the past 40 years you have covered the Olympic Games for radio, television, print and online applications – this makes you one of the very few, if not the one and only, truly multi-media Olympic Games correspondents,” said IOC president Bach.

“During this time, the world of journalism and the Olympic movement have undergone tremendous changes. You were always at the forefront to report on those developments and report on them using the leading medium of the day.

“You made it your mission to make sense of it all to an ever-growing audience well beyond the Rings and sometimes it really needs an effort to makes sense of all that what we do,” Bach kidded lightly.

Hula’s steadfast dedication, innovative approach and unwavering commitment to his craft – as a highly specialized journalist who has attended 15 Olympic Games – quickly earned him immense respect in the Olympic world. He chased the IOC around the globe to their annual sessions for more than three decades, his first in Tokyo, in September 1990. ATR became a game-changer in Olympic journalism, both highlighting and applauding IOC members, while also keeping them on their toes and glancing over their shoulders.

“This is an exciting moment for me – I started on this Olympic journey when Atlanta was bidding for the 1996 Olympic Games and this was the path it would take me on,” Hula said, upon acceptance of the award. “I was a younger radio reporter at the time and it came as a great opportunity there in Tokyo 1990 and Juan Antonio Samaranch declared Atlanta the winner of the 1996 Olympics.

“Pierre de Coubertin said that to have an Olympic Games is to invoke history and every day, you, me, all of us involved in the Olympic movement pushing it forward are writing history. I think it’s really important that we continue this really, really critical mission,” Hula said, referencing the IOC founder.

Hula’s wife Sheila, the former publisher of ATR, and his son Edward III, who formerly served in numerous capacities with the publication, in addition to IOC Executive Board members, attended the ceremony at the IOC’s headquarters on the shores of Lake Geneva.

“I have made no secret of the fact that I feel like he’s been overlooked in a number of ways and to see this is so very rewarding and it means so much,” she said.

Hula elaborated upon what the prestigious award means to him, in an interview with the Olympic medium that he himself created in late 1996, a newsletter and publication that was initially known as the Hula Report.

“I appreciate the recognition – you always wonder if you’re rolling the stone of Sisyphus up a hill and does anybody care,” Hula said. “This is a wonderful recognition and not only what I’ve done. I’ve been able to do what I’ve done because of great people I’ve worked with over the years at ATR. And Sheila having the patience and understanding for going through this with me.”

Hula said, partly in jest, that he knew Around the Rings truly made it big time after a humorous moment at an IOC gathering about 10-12 years ago.

“I walked into an IOC Executive Board meeting to take pictures and someone said, oh it’s the 16th member of the IOC Executive Board,” Hula said with a smile. “When I got that kind of joking recognition in good humor, it told me that they were paying attention to us and we meant something to them.”

Hula highlighted a few of his most memorable Olympic moments that helped shaped shape and define his illustrious career.

“This day in 1993, my first visit to Lausanne, the grand opening of the Olympic Museum with hundreds of people at the museum, IOC members who are no longer with us, sponsors, individuals, who were part of the Olympics then. I had never seen such a gathering at the museum, that was a big moment,” Hula recalled.

“Certainly the Atlanta Olympics – getting to carry the Olympic torch a few weeks after my Dad died. Going through the Atlanta Olympics and the drama of it all,” the veteran Olympic journalist continued.

“The Atlanta Olympics were important, but also an uncertain threshold. I didn’t know what would happen after the flame went out. As it turned out, my work, the contacts that I developed, were starting to bear fruit. I was invited to Australia and kept the Hula Report going as Around the Rings,” Hula said, referring to his relocation to Sydney to cover the 2000 Olympics in a new capacity.

“Atlanta was a rebirth, a re-invention of what I was doing and that put us on a different course entirely.”

The prestigious Coubertin medal was first awarded in 1987 to former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch. Among the more than 40 recipients of the honor, Hula is just the fourth American, joining Henry Kissinger (2000), Utah philanthropist and Salt Lake City 2002 contributor Spencer Eccles (2002), and author George Hirthler (2022).

Bach further commended Hula, even comparing him to IOC founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who also pursued Olympic journalism through his vast and intellectual writings, among his numerous contributions to the movement.

“Knowing that Coubertin shared the same passion for Olympic journalism as you, I’m sure that from his Olympic heights he has followed your Olympic endeavors with great interest and appreciation,” Bach said.

“If he is with us in spirit today, and I’m sure he is, and I’m also sure that he is joining us in saluting you, in your lifelong dedication to spreading the news from and about the Olympic Games.”

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