The poster girl for archery’s return to the Olympic Games in 1972 – World Archery

The image appeared in Sports Illustrated, then in the newspaper Bild including to illustrate a report on a field archery tournament and then in a textbook on archery published in 1969.

Somehow, it ended up with the design chief for Munich 1972, Otl Aicher.

He appeared in person at the sports shop in Waldtrudering in which Lehner worked as a salesperson and built an archery department to show her a draft of his poster for the Olympics.

He asked me if I agreed with it, says Irene. She did and the poster was released. Lehner was subsequently accused by her teammates of violating the amateur rules that then surrounded sport.

Neither then, nor later, did I ever get a penny, not even a poster, she says. Although her sister-in-law who worked at the Franzis-Druck printers in Munich did find her a copy.

Lehner didnt make it to the Olympics. Although she was a top archer in Germany in the years preceding, she stepped away from the sport after her son had an accident in 1970. She later founded Hofolding Archery Club in the south of Munich in 1972 and sat on its board for 40 years.

Now in her eighties, and 50 years since her image was used to promote archerys historic return to the Olympic Games, Irene can still be found shooting her bow.

Quotes, photos and research courtesy Stefan Grus and based on an article previously published on DSB.de.

See the original post here:

The poster girl for archery's return to the Olympic Games in 1972 - World Archery