MOWA Portland – Lewis, Lopes and Lyles, plus much more

In addition to the MOWA-Heritage exhibit that is situated less than 400 metres walk away from Eugene’s Hayward Field, the venue for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (15-24 July), a MOWA Track & Field Heritage Exhibition, Oregon22, is also being hosted in the state capital Portland.

The first Museum of World Athletics (MOWA) public exhibition in Oregon opened in the Pioneer Place shopping mall on 8 April. 

As with MOWA Eugene, the Portland exhibit will remain open to the public until the end of the WCH Oregon22.

All that glitters

The design of the Portland exhibit’s graphics is heavily “USA, USA, USA!”, and 12 of the 32 competition artefacts on display represent US world and Olympic champions and/or world record-breakers.  

MOWA Eugene might have one of Michael Johnson’s famous Atlanta gold running spikes, but Portland can match that glitter. Johnson’s Sydney Olympic spike, which is on display in Pioneer Place, has $1000 of 14 carat gold sprayed on it!  

Singlets from Jim Hines (1967 AAU), Carl Lewis (1986 Goodwill Games), Gail Devers (Budapest 2004) and Noah Lyles (Doha 2019) are four of the other US sprinting items being exhibited.

Not to be outshone by the US, Jamaica’s sprint ace Veronica Campbell-Brown’s Athens 2004 Olympic 200m winning singlet is another of the featured exhibits.

Combined event greats

Along with the donation of Hines’ singlet in March 2020 came the 1967 AAU tracksuit top of another future 1968 Olympic champion, Bill Toomey.

Toomey, the Olympic decathlon champion in Mexico City who broke the world record in 1969, heads an impressive line-up of combined eventers who have artefacts displayed.

The top that Carolina Klüft of Sweden wore when winning the Olympic heptathlon title in Athens 2004 sits opposite the singlet of Canada’s Brianne Thiesen-Eaton, in which she won the world indoor pentathlon gold in, appropriately, Portland in 2016.

In between those two global title exhibits are the pair of 1500m spikes that France’s Kevin Mayer wore when setting the current world record in the decathlon in 2018. 

Kipchoge’s Olympic shoe

Long distance and especially marathon running is very much to the fore in MOWA Portland.

The 1993 world marathon champion Mark Plaatjes officially opened the MOWA exhibit and at the ceremony generously donated his marathon personal best singlet.

Singlets worn by Czech Emil Zatopek (1954 season) and Portugal’s Carlos Lopes (10,000m silver, Montreal 1976), who respectively became the 1952 and 1984 Olympic marathon champions, are displayed in the same glass cabinet.

A few metres away in another showcase are items from three fellow world marathon record-breakers.

The shoes of Jaqi Hansen, who in Eugene in 1975 became the first woman below 2:40, are next to the singlet of Mary Keitany, which she wore when taking her fourth New York City Marathon title in 2018.

In the same showcase, one of the shoes in which Eliud Kipchoge sped to the Rio 2016 Olympic title is another of the highlights of the collection.

Walking, throwing, jumping, hurdling and some middle distance too!

No event category is overlooked in MOWA Portland, with World Championships winning items from race walking legends Robert Korzeniowski (Paris 2003) and Jefferson Perez (Osaka 2007) on show.

Klaus Wolfermann (Munich 1972 top), Karl-Hans Riehm (LA 1984 singlet), Dani Stevens (Berlin 2009) and Michelle Carter (Rio 2016 singlet) are among the throwers represented in the displays.

World Championships exhibits from jumpers Christian Olsson (Paris 2003) and Dwight Phillips (Osaka 2007) join the clothing from Carl Lewis highlighted earlier.  

The global title shoes of Nezha Bidouane (400m hurdles, Edmonton 2001) and Allen Johnson (110m hurdles Athens 1997) and the current 110m hurdles world record spikes of Aries Merritt are the standout hurdling exhibits.

And there is also the LA 1984 1500m winning singlet of World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, and so much more on display at MOWA Portland.

Chris Turner for World Athletics Heritage

MOWA PORTLAND: Pioneer Place, 700 SW 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97204.
​Open: 7 days a week - 10am to 7pm (staffed 11am to 5pm).