US Olympic Stamps

I am looking for information about official US Olympic stamps. From my research I believe that the first of such stamps was made for the 1932 games in LA/Lake Placid. Can anyone point me to a credible source that may confirm this? Further, I cannot find any stamps produced for the the Olympics after the 2004 Summer games in Athens. Does anyone know of US Olympic stamps for 2006-Torino, 2008-Beijing, 2010-Vancouver, 2012-London, or 2014-Sochi? Has the post office stopped making them? Is it because of exorbitant licensing fees paid to the IOC?

Exactly. With the USPS being in the financial situation they are in and with the IOC licensing fees ever increasing, they made a decision to put a stop to it.

Here's a list of Olympic Stamps and Postal Stationery items issued to date, as taken from the Postal Service Guide to US Stamps. As you have suggested the very first was the Olympic Ski Jumper, Scott #716 (1932 Games) ... and the last was Scott #4436 (Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics):

The USPS is not the only postal authority no longer making Olympic stamps. Ukraine is issuing stamps for athletics on Olympic years to commemorate the Olympic team, but they're not putting the 5 rings on them, or denoting them as "Olympic Stamps."

I've seen other postal services doing the same thing.

Canada Post is in the same situation, it appears. I was sorry to learn both Canada Post and the USPS were not issuing Olympic stamps this year, though Canada did issue three beautiful stamps honoring pioneering female Olympic athletes to coincide with the opening of the Sochi 2014 Games. The stamps honor Barbara Ann Scott, Sandra Schmerler, and Sarah Burke, but do not contain the five rings nor the word "Olympic".

Canada issued one for London 2012 (the US did not), and of course, there were plenty from Canada Post for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. In 2002, they issues four winter sports stamps, but without the rings or "Olympic" on them; I don't recall issues for Sydney 2000 or Nagano 1998. It's hit and miss, apparently. In the recent past Canada Post and the USPS have both been official Olympic sponsors, and added the rings to their logos! From that to nothing at all this year.

A fascinating discussion - I wonder how many other countries have done the same as Canada and the USA? - Would be very interesting to know as I assume there may be consequences for "Olympic" themed collections if "major" countries have pulled the pin on the IOC and its "over the top" licensing fees

Maybe I missed it, but there were four US stamps issued for the 2002 Winter Olympics - No. 3552-3555

Also, there was an unofficial stamp for the 1998 Winter Games - No. 3180 - there are no Rings (I think a licensing agreement could not be reached), but it shows an alpine skier and was released at the time of the Games.

#centerstage- you're right about the 2002 US issue - it would have been odd for the US to host the games and not recognize them with at least one stamp. (Does anyone issue one stamp for anything any more?)

#3180 was the same idea as the 3 Canadian stamps that TorontoPhil mentioned - winter sport themed stamps timed to the Olympics, but without the "official" Olympic connection. The IOC takes its copyrights seriously. It may be an urban legend but I heard that during the 2012 games in London, there was a Greek restaurant named Olympia or something like that which was forced to close during the games because the IOC was accusing them of piggybacking on the games, despite the fact they were open even before London bid on those games. And there were supposedly numerous shops ordered to stop selling souvenirs that even looked remotely Olympic unless they were IOC-sanctioned souvenirs.

And it sure was confusing seeing the original post on this topic and the first reply coming from users with the same avatar. (By the way, what do you have to do to upload your own avatar - is it based on the number of posts or something?)

I, too, would like to know the answer to this question!
Added: I read the bit in the General Rules about avatars but I didn't feel there was sufficient detail on what we can or must do.

go to the Stamp Community Support section of the forum https://goscf.com/f/13 , make a new post called "avatar request" , post your pic in there and it will get resized and added to your account when Bobby stops in. Sometimes it takes a couple weeks but he'll get to it.