Paul Zammit Cutajar with the award.

More than 60 years after his late father waved the Maltese flag at the Olympic Games, sports photographer Paul Zammit Cutajar has been awarded the International Olympic Committee Trophy – Sport and Art for 2014.

“I would have been over the moon if my father was still alive when I covered the London Olympic Games. I’m sure that it would have made him very happy,” Mr Zammit Cutajar said.

The late Francis Zammit Cutajar was Malta’s flag-bearer in the 1948 Olympics known as the Austerity Games, 64 years before his son was at the Olympics 2012 in the same city as a photographer.

Mr Zammit Cutajar’s career in sports photography kicked off in 2007 when he covered a football match between Malta and Turkey, and he was first published in the Times of Malta.

He then covered the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in 2010 in Singapore, the London Olympics in 2012, the Games of Small States in Luxembourg in 2013 and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year.

Throughout the years he has also covered FIFA World Cup games and UEFA Champions League finals, and is the official photographer of the Malta Football Association.

Through the IOC trophy, the Maltese Olympic Committee recognises artists who promote Olympism and leave a legacy through art. Mr Zammit Cutajar was the local awardee for this year.

“I wish to dedicate the trophy to the most wonderful man in my life. He was my guide, my mentor, my protector and my friend with whom I spent most of my life, but most of all, a loving father that anybody would have wished for,” Mr Zammit Cutajar added.

Stunning fireworks crown the Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games 2014. Photos: Paul Zammit Cutajar