LAUSANNE, August 17, 2012 – Veteran Olympic journalist and athletics specialist Gustav Schwenk is in good company. He shares the same birthday as 800m and 1500m Olympic Gold medalists New Zealander Peter Snell (Tokyo 1964) and Kenya’s David Rudisha  (London) – December 17.

Former Secretary General of the AIPS Athletics Commission, 88-year-old Schwenk was honoured at a special ceremony  held during the London Olympic Games and attended by LOCOG Chairman Lord Sebastian Coe, IAAF President Lamine Diack, LOCOG Head of Press Operations Jayne Pearce and AIPS President Gianni Merlo.

Schwenk reported from his first Olympic Games in Helsinki, 1952 and has attended every Summer Games since, except Beijing.

The 2009 IAAF World Journalist of the Year was presented with a photo montage of all the Olympic Games he has attended, as well as a London 2012 replica torch produced by AIPS partner HONAV, Beijing.