On the 25th of February 2022, Latvijas Pasts released the second stamp in the series Latvian Museums, and this year’s issue is dedicated to Latvian Sport Museum. In the new stamp, the artist Arta Ozola-Jaunarāja has depicted various valuable exhibits from the museum’s collections.
The print run of the stamp Latvian Sport Museum is 50,000 copies and its face value is €1.44, which corresponds to the postage of items in the weight class up to 20 grams to the countries in Groups 2 and 4. The release of the stamp is accompanied by the issue of a special cover with a print run of 800 copies. The stamp and the cover have been designed by the artist A.Ozola-Jaunarāja.
The artist has created the composition of the new stamp, incorporating several articles from the collection of Latvian Sport Museum: a bronze figure of Kārlis Mikuls (1886–1911), one of the most outstanding Latvian athletes; the skates of Alberts Rumba, a speed skater who competed in the I Olympic Winter Games (Chamonix, 1924); the honorary prize of the Association of Latvian Sports Organisations – a silver laurel wreath, which was awarded in 1932 to Jānis Daliņš, the winner of the X Olympic Games silver medal in the 50-kilometre race walk; as well as the gold medal won by Jānis Ķipurs in the bobsleigh doubles competition in the XV Olympic Winter Games in Calgary (1988).
The cover depicts the Amber Sea Cup (1951–1957), which was a gift from the sailors of the UK flagged Latvian ships Elizabete, Rāmava, Kuldīga, Sports, Ogre and Venta to the best Latvian basketball teams in England; the basketball donated to the museum by the outstanding basketball player Uļjana Semjonova in 1993; as well as three photographs featuring Latvian tobogganers at the beginning of the 20th century, the first outstanding Latvian swimmer Kārlis Bensons (1891–1938) and Latvian track cyclists at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
Latvian Sport Museum is located at 9 Alksnāja Street, Riga. The museum offers the opportunity to get insight into the cultural heritage of sports as well as to gain new knowledge about Latvian sports from the beginnings of organised sports to the diversity of modern sports. The mission of the museum is to educate the society, especially the youth, to strengthen national self-awareness and identity, to inspire the individual and to spark a desire to engage in sports activities, promoting the formation of a healthy, creative, free and conscientious society.
