The International Olympic Committee’s “IOC Trophy” is offered to National Olympic Committees annually. As in the past, this trophy is given to the NOCs to honour a prominent figure within the sporting community of their choice. Every year the IOC Executive Board selects a different theme with this year’s entitled “Sport and Media”. This year’s criteria for awarding this Trophy is that it should be presented to a personality within the world of media who has promoted sport and Olympism at a national or international level. The selection of the recipient and the awarding of the trophy are entrusted to the National Olympic Committee.
Accordingly, the Malta Olympic Committee nominated Lewis Portelli, one of Malta’s most respected sports journalists. The International Olympic Committee has endorsed this and on the 8th December at the Malta Olympic Committee Sports Awards 2004, Mr. Lewis Portelli will be awarded an IOC “Sport and Media” Trophy for his outstanding and longstanding contribution to the development of Sport and Media in Malta.
Lewis Portelli married to Josephine nee Borg (1955), is a well-known figure in Sports and the Media. Apart from being the first journalist to broadcast direct from abroad to Malta at the Olympic Games in 1960, which was first in the history of broadcasting in Malta, he has presented for a long number of years regular radio and television sports programmes such as ‘Sports Panorama’ and ‘Rizultati Sportivi’ as well as innumerable newspaper articles some of which appeared in the foreign press. In 1966 he was attached for a month with the BBC sports unit.
Throughout his sporting career he has travelled extensively covering international events including the Olympic Games, the World Cup football finals, The Games of the Small States of Europe and other championships. In 1988 he was awarded his first International Olympic Committee prize for promoting the Olympic ideals through writing and broadcasting, which was followed by the “Midalja ghall-Qadi tar-Repubblika” which was awarded to him in 1993 by the Maltese Government for his contribution to Sport. More recently he was winner of the BPC Press Club Award as the “Sportswriter of the Year” 2001. In 1994 he participated in the IOC Centennial Congress at Sorbonne University in Paris, at the request of the International Olympic Committee and he presented a paper on “Sports in Small Countries”. In 2002 he was a member of the University “Sportsopolis” team winner of the Broadcasting Authority Award.
During his 48-year career he met, broadcast and published a great number of interviews with world-renowned sportsmen/women and officials including the Presidents of FIFA, UEFA and the IOC. Lewis Portelli is the author of 12 books dealing with the World Cup, the Olympic Games and the Games of the Small States of Europe and of a special commemorative book spanning the first 100 years of the Maltese FA; “L-Istorja tat-Tazza tad-Dinja” – six editions; “Minn Ateni ghal Seoul” (1988) and subsequently Barcelona (1992); Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) with special reference to Maltese participation at the Olympic Games; “From San Marino to Malta” – a history of the Games of the Small States of Europe (1993); Contributing editor of "The Football Year Book – Malta” – now in its 19th Year. In 2004 he was awarded the National Senior Citizen of the Year by the Maltese Government.
Lewis Portelli has been master of ceremonies for the opening (except one) and closing ceremonies for the all-19 editions of the “Malta Volleyball Marathon” since it’s inception in 1986.
Lewis Portelli is the co-founder of the Sports Writers Association and founder of the Sportsmanship Trophy – Malta. He was a member for 11 years of the Malta Olympic Committee as Director of Media & PR and was a member of the national sports board 1962-1971.
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