John Ian Wing - Wikiwand

John Ian Wing (born 18 November 1939) is an Olympic bronze medal recipient and an Australian-born British resident of Chinese descent who, as a student in Australia in 1956, wrote an anonymous letter to the International Olympic Committee suggesting the athletes from all countries mingle during the closing parade of the Summer Olympics held in Melbourne that year. His idea was used that Olympiad and has remained an Olympic tradition since that time.

Born John Wing in Windsor, Melbourne, he was only a few days old when his mother died. His father placed him in the Melbourne Children's Home and he remained there for several years. The name Ian was given to him by staff at the Home, as there were already many other boys at the Home named John. When his father remarried he was removed from the Home and sent back to his family, who lived above his father's Chinese cafe in Bourke Street, Melbourne.^[1]

1956 Summer Olympics

Olympic Medal

References

↑ John Ian Wing: Methodist Children’s Homes and the Olympics 1956 Archived 17 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Wing's account of his early life, page found 2011-06-28.
↑ Gordon, Harry (24 September 2003). "The changing face of a dear-old arena". The Age. Perhaps the greatest single contribution the 1956 Games made to the Olympic movement came from an anonymous Chinese boy, a 17-year-old apprentice carpenter who wrote cheekily to the organisers suggesting that the procession at the closing ceremony should not be a traditional march, with divided nations, but one joyous intermingled affair, with athletes from all nations linking arms and waving. The idea was adopted, and that is the way it has been since. That Chinese lad, later identified as John Ian Wing, changed the closing ceremony forever. On the 30th anniversary of the Games, through an essay in Time magazine, I played a role in finding him – living as a builder in England.
↑ John Ian Wing: Methodist Children’s Homes and the Olympics 1956 Archived 17 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, describing his life in an orphanage, adoption and details of why he wrote the letter.
↑ Wing, John Ian. "History of the Olympic Closing Ceremony". Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2014. At the time, I was living above my father's restaurant at 16 Bourke Street Melbourne, which was two doors away from St James picture theatre. It was now about 11.00pm. A few hours earlier, looking down into the street, I watched people lining up in an orderly manner waiting to go into the theatre. Now I watched them come out in one big mass, spilling out onto the road and stopping the traffic. They were smiling and laughing and even talking to strangers as if they had known each other before. Then the 'idea' came to me. As I was writing my letter to the chairman of the Organising Committee, I suggested that all the athletes of the world should come together for the closing ceremony, to unite and intermingle and enter the Stadium as One Nation.
↑ Culpepper, Chuck (23 August 2008). "His big idea had legs". Los Angeles Times.
↑ https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/08/08/1025404479/why-olympic-athletes-dont-march-behind-their-own-flag-at-the-closing-ceremony Shortly after the Olympics were over, Wing told The Age newspaper, he was in his father's restaurant when a waiter told him he had a visitor. There, a man in formal attire handed him a plastic case, containing an Olympic bronze medal. "It is from Mr. Kent Hughes," the man said as he left.

Don't Write a Letter of Complaint... Offer a Solution!" at the Wayback Machine (archived 8 February 2012) DimSum. 20 Sept. 2007. The British Chinese Community Website. 5 Nov. 2007.
Location of John Ian Wing Parade at the Sydney Olympic Park (Newington) (Google maps)

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