Sochi 2014 Olympics Games and Pakistan's Participation in Olympics

I have always been a sports fanatic and Olympics has been the twilight of all sports events held on the planet. In fact, I have a special admiration for Olympics Stamps and have a nice collection of them by now.
My primary love is for Summer Olympics because PAKISTAN does send a few teams in these Olympics and even managed to get some medals there - although very few as compared to the huge population and the talented youth available in the country; but there are some obvious reasons and most importantly it's the dirty politics in the country in general and in Pakistan Olympics Federation in particular. A little Google search reveals the following:-

• After it's independence in 1947, Pakistan has participated in all Summer Olympics Games except in 1980 when it joined the US-led Olympics Boycott as it were held in Moscow, Russia.
• In total, Pakistan has won 10 medals so far, including 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze medals.
• Out of the total 10 medals, Pakistan Field Hockey Team has won 8 including 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze medals.
• The remaining 2 Bronze medals were won in Wrestling and Boxing.
• ... and unfortunately, Pakistan has not won a single medal in the last 5 Olympics Games since 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain to 2012 Olympics Games in London, UK.

Pakistan has never sent any team to Winter Olympics, if I am not wrong.
Sorry, Google has again proved me wrong ------ Pakistan's first participation in Winter Olympics Games was in 2010 in Vancouver Winter Olympics, where Mr Muhammad Abbas represented Pakistan in Alpine Skiing category in Men's Giant Slalom event. He was ranked 79 out of 103 qualifiers.
Pakistan's Ski Team has also qualified for 2014 Winter Olympics Games in Sochi, Russia, scheduled to be held from February 7 - 23, 2014.

 The above stamp was issued in 2011 by Russian Postal Service to commemorate Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Games. It is one of the stamp of a series of 3 stamps.

The magnificent cover is definitely a nice addition in my Olympics Covers Collection.

The envelope also contained this lovely Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Russia Mascot sticker.
The back of the cover was sealed with very cute small cartoon stickers. I like it!

Slovenia - An Amazing Cover from the Beautiful European Country

After a long time, when I decided to share a new cover from my collection, I decided to share a real-posted cover from a new country, therefore I selected this cute cover from Slovenia or Slovenija, as they spell it on the stamps.
The envelope is a made up of beautiful dull blue-coloured paper and the stamps really emboss on dull blue background.

The cover was sent to me by Karmen from Slovenia alongwith a couple of postcards and coins too.

The cover is posted with 3 stamps on the face.

• The left-most Slovenian souvenir sheet featuring a flower was issued in 2009 and shows a Ranunculus Arvensis.
• The middle stamp is one of the set of two stamps issued by Slovenia in 2008 at the event of Beijing Olympics. You can see the complete set here.
• The stamp on the right side was also issued in 2009 at the moment of "World Cup Athletes, Berlin". The stamp shows various athletes in action in different coloured silhouettes. It is really a very beautiful and coloured stamp and I absolutely love it.

You can leave your comments below!

A Box Full of On-Paper Stamps - A Dream-Come-True for a Philatelist

Today was a dream-come-true day for me as I received a huge box of stamps that I bought about 15 months ago. For the first time I laid my hands on these stamps and they are amazing.

I am sure that it is strange to hear about this story of receiving stamps 15 months after buying them but I assure you that the seller did a magnificent job of sending the stamps on the same day that I sent the money and the stamps were delivered to the address that I mentioned.

The box is almost 20" x 20" x 8" and its all full of on-paper stamps from Australia. The box contains almost 9 kgs of on-paper stamps.

The first look inside the box of stamps was simply amazing. I bought these stamps in kiloware from Glen Stephens Web Store and am highly thankful to Glen for sending me such a nice bunch of Australian stamps. These include commemoratives as well as definitives.
Below are some of the photos of the stamps that I could find at the very top:-

 The box of stamps is full of stamps featuring dogs, birds, fishes, cats, cars and above all Nicole Kidman ;)

 All sorts of varieties of lovely stamps and I am very happy to receive them,

I am sure that these will be enough to keep me busy for a life time.
I am still wondering how to sort them out and what to do with them?
If you have any suggestions, please share in Comments Section below the post.

Croatia: Barcelona Olympics 1992 Stamps on "Stop the War in Croatia" Cover

After a long time, I am sharing another magnificent item from my collection. It is a beautiful yet strange First Day Cover (FDC) from Croatia. The strange thing is that the FDC is issued for "Stop the War in Croatia" but the stamps used on the cover are not the same. The two stamps pasted in the top-right corner of the cover comprise of the complete set of stamps issued by Croatia to mark the event of Barcelona Summer Olympics 1992. 

Another Stamp in the bottom-center of the FDC is issued for Zrinski–Frankopan, which according to Google is another name for Magnate Conspiracy. It is 17th century attempt to throw off Habsburg and other foreign influences over Hungary and Croatia.

This Croatian FDC is a nice mix of various items from 1992 and 1993, I believe. The postmark on the FDC is from some other sports stamp of 1993, but I could not find them.

You can contribute and share your knowledge on the stamps, FDC or the Postmarks, if you know anything! I shall be obliged!

Yugoslavia Olympics Cover - Seoul Olympics 1988

After a long time of absence, here is a magnificent First Day Cover from Former Yugoslavia or Jugoslavija. The FDC was issued on the event of 24th Olympic Summer Games held at Seoul, South Korea.

The FDC features an absolutely gorgeous Miniature Sheet from Jugoslavija. The Olympics FDC and miniature sheet were issued on 21 March 1988.
Do you collect Olympics Theme? If you have any Olympics FDCs to swap, please feel free to leave me a message below.
I am even interested in getting all FDCs or stamps issued for T20 CricketWorld Cup 2010 and FIFA Football World Cup 2010, if your country is issuing any..... Do you have any?

#22: Slovakia; Beijing Olympics 2008 FDC

A magnificent FDC from Slovakia is here. It is one of my personal favorites from the Olympics theme. The beautiful stamp shows a female athlete doing long jump where as many different sports men and women are shown on the left side playing various sports. Indeed very fascinating. The postmark also depicts a sportsman. the stamp is issued on 4 Jun 2009.

Cover # 10: Pakistan FDC: Athens Olympics 2004

A beautiful Pakistan FDC featuring Olympics stamps issued for XXVIII Athens Olympics 2004. The FDC was issued on the eve of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto "Welcome Home".  The motto depicted the fact that it was the first time since 1896 that the Olympics returned to Athens from where they initiated.

The cover featured a set of 4 stamps featuring Wrestling, Hockey, Boxing and Running. Interestingly from the above mentioned sports, Pakistan DID NOT participate in wrestling during Athens Olympics but took part in 5 sports in total including Hockey, Boxing, Running (Athletics), Shooting & Swimming. Unfortunately Pakistan did not manage to get a single medal (not even a plastic medal) during the games however Pakistan finished 5th in Hockey event (ahead of their arch-rivals India which finished 7th - ) ------ hehehe  ;)

10,625 athletes competed from 201 countries in the event. There were 301 medal events in 28 different sports. 

The 2004 Olympic Games emblem (as seen below) portrayed an olive wreath, or kotinos, a branch from an olive tree intertwined in a circle. The emblem is a reference to the ancient Olympic Games, where the kotinos was the official award of Olympic champions. In addition, the olive was the sacred tree of Athens. The colours of the emblem symbolise the shades of white and blue found in the Greek countryside.

The Athens games had two official mascots:  Athiná and Phévos (pronounced in Greek as Athina and Fivos). The sister and brother were named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom, strategy and war, while Phoebus, the god of light and music, respectively. They were inspired by the ancient daidala, which were dolls that had religious connotations as well as being toys.

United States topped the medals table with 102 medals including 36 Gold medals, China with 32 gold medals stood 2nd where as Russia managed to gain 3rd position by clinching 27 gold medals.

I have only one cover available with me which will be swapped in return of another nice FDC with Olympics theme with complete set of stamps. 

FDC #3: France: Munich Olympics 1972

Hello Pals!
I am here after a little absence. I have to show you a beautiful cover from my Olympics collection. It is an official FDC from France marking the event of Munich Olympics 1972 held of course in Munich (Then West Germany).

Unfortunately, the event saw a massacre on September 5 by some members belonging to the Black September Organization who broke into the Olympics village and took 11 Israeli athletes hostage in their apartment. They killed two of the athletes in their apartment after fighting back.

Afterwards during a botched German rescue attempt at the military airport of Furstenfeldbruck, where the captors with their hostages had been transferred by helicopter, ostensibly to board a plane bound for another country, all the surviving Israeli hostages were killed by a terrorist who threw a grenade into the helicopter carrying the hostages in one helicopter and another terrorist who sprayed the second helicopter with machine gun fire.

The games were suspended for some time but the Olympics committee decided that "the Games must go on". Competition resumed a day later.

The 1972 Munich Olympics were officially named as Games of the XX Olympiad. The official motto of the games was "The Happy Games". The emblem of the Games was a blue solar logo (the "Bright Sun"). The Olympic mascot, the dachsund "Waldi", was the first officially-named Olympic mascot.

France finished in 17th position in the final medal rankings, with two gold medals(Cycling, Men's 1000m Sprint and Sailing, Men's Finn) and 13 medals overall. Pakistan also competed in the event and managed to win a silver medal in Men's Field Hockey Team Competition.

I think that this particular cover was issued during the torch relay of Olympics. Can anyone put me wise on this issue? The FDC was sent to me by M. Chapeau Jean-Michel from France. Thanks Michel for such a nice cover.