# 2496-2500 - 1990 25c Olympians

US #2496-2500
1990 Olympians

• Features five former Olympic gold medal winners
• First Stamps issued under USPS sponsorship of Olympics
  
  

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Olympians
Value:   25¢, First-Class mail rate
First Day of Issue:  July 6, 1990
First Day City:  Minneapolis, Minnesota
Quantity Issued:  35,697,500
Printed by:  American Bank Note Company
Printing Method:  Photogravure
Format:  Panes of 35 from printing cylinders of 140
Perforations:  11

Why the stamp was issued:  These stamps were issued to honor past American Olympic stars.  They were the first stamps issued by USPS during its sponsorship of the 1992 Olympic Games.

About the stamp design:  The Olympians stamps were designed by Bart Forbes, who was also the talent behind the 1988 Winter and Summer Olympics stamps.  He used existing photos of the athletes as inspiration for his stamp designs.

About the printing process:  The Olympians stamps were originally going to be produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  Because of other commitments, the printing job was given to the American Bank Note Company.  The panes of 35 was a new format.

First Day City:  The First Day of Issue ceremony was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the US Olympic Festival 90.

About the Olympians set:  The US Postal Service originally planned to issued a single stamp honoring Jesse Owens.  When the USPS became an official Olympic sponsor, the issue was expanded to include a booklet of five athletes instead of one.  Later, it was announced that the stamps would be issued as a sheet rather than a booklet.

History the stamp represents: 
Ray Ewry was known for his excellence in standing jumps.  During the 1900 and 1904 Olympics, he took home gold in the standing long jump, standing high jump, and standing triple jump.  At a special Olympics held in Athens in 1906, Ewry was awarded the gold medal for the standing high and long jumps after the third event was dropped.  He added two more gold medals two years later before retiring.  His record of eight gold medals in individual events (not counting the special games) held until 2008 (a century after Ewry won his last gold medal).  Ewry’s record for the standing long jump was still standing when the event was discontinued in international competition in the 1930s.

By the time Helene Madison was 17 years old, she already held 27 world’s freestyle swimming records.  In 1932, she won Olympic gold in the 100-meter and 400-meter races and as a member of the 400-meter relay.  Madison was the most successful female athlete at the Games that year. 

Eddie Eagan is the only American to win a gold medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympics in different sports.  In the 1920 Summer Olympics, Eagan won a gold medal as a boxer in the light-heavyweight division.  Eight years later, he competed as a member of the US Olympic bobsled team in Lake Placid.  Eagan had never been in a bobsled before arriving at the Olympic village.  His team received the gold medal. 

In 1924, Hazel Wightman won two gold medals in Olympic tennis.  She was partnered with her student, Helen Wills, in the ladies’ doubles event and with Richard Norris Williams in the mixed doubles.  This year marked the final Olympic Games offering tennis as an event.
Wightman competed on the world stage in other tennis matches, as well.  Over the course of her 45-year career, she earned 45 national tennis titles.  Her final championship came when she was 63 years old.  She also founded the Wightman Cup, a competition between American and British amateur female tennis players.  She has been called the “Queen Mother of American Tennis.”

Jesse Owens is the best known of the Olympians pictured in this set of stamps.  He won his four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.  The Games were held in Berlin, Germany, where Adolph Hitler was sure his athletes were going to dominate.  Owens proved him wrong.
Owens first caught national attention in high school when he tied the world record in the 100-yard dash.  In college, he won eight individual NCAA championships.  On May 25, 1935, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth in a span of 45 minutes.
As the 1936 Olympics were approaching, many supported a boycott because of Hitler’s oppressive regime.  Though Owens was advised to boycott the Games, he chose to go.  He overwhelmed the German athletes, as well as the rest of the field.  When Owens received his first of four gold medals, the crowd in the stands stood and cheered.  To this day, Jesse Owens is considered one of the greatest American track stars in history.