who was (really) the father of the modern Olympic Games?

Ideal of peace, sport and physical education

A century later, imbued with the ideals of the motto of the French Republic, “Liberty, equality, fraternity”, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, born on January 1, 1863 in Paris into a family of the French aristocracy, advocates a return to values sport and physical education, which had held such an important place in the training of young Greeks in Antiquity.

Very sporty himself, strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon culture, at the age of 25, he became one of the leaders of educational reform in France, aiming to introduce sport into French educational establishments.

Deeply affected by the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Baron de Coubertin, nourished by Greek and Latin culture like his contemporaries, frequented pacifist circles. On the eve of the 20th century, as the borders of Europe were finally being established, he thought he would find in the Olympiads a guarantee of international peace.

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Paris 2024 Olympic Games: do you know the thousand-year-old history of the Olympic Games?

VIDEOS – The Olympic flame passes through the Acropolis of Athens this Friday and Saturday. The history of the Olympic Games dates back to Antiquity and has its roots in Greece. The Revolution had briefly resurrected them and it is again to a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin, that we owe their return, on June 23, 1894

Olympic dream

In 1889, during the Universal Exhibition in Paris, he organized the first Congress of physical exercises and school competitions. Five years later, on June 23, 1894, on the occasion of the International Congress in Paris for the reestablishment of the Olympic Games, he saw his dream come true, with the support of the very vast movement in favor of peace of the time: 2,000 people spontaneously stood up in the large amphitheater of the Sorbonne to cheer his proposal to revive the Olympic Games.

International Olympic Committee

More than 2,000 years after the ancient Games, the first Summer Olympics of the modern era, opened by Greek King George I and his wife Olga, took place from April 6 to 15, 1896 in Athens, Greece, just return of things. Pierre de Coubertin was elected the second president in the history of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1896. He succeeded Demetrius Vikelas and remained at the head of the IOC until 1925.

Arts and literature

For Pierre de Coubertin, there is more than just sport in life. The Baron is also passionate about arts and culture. He has something to learn from: his father, Charles, is an academic artist, specialist in large oils on canvas, representing orientalist subjects. One of his dearest wishes is to include art competitions in the Olympic program. His wish was granted at the 1912 Stockholm Games. The baron even won the gold medal in the “Literature” category with his Ode to Sport (rightly forgotten). Mini-scandal: he registered under the pseudonyms of Georg Hohrod and Martin Eschbach… After a particularly brilliant edition at the Paris Olympics in 1924, the art and literature tests ended at the 1948 Olympic Games.

Olympic rings, maxim and truce

The following year, in 1913, he created the famous Olympic rings. The symbol of the Olympic Movement represents the union of five continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world at the Olympic Games. But be careful, it is false to say that each of the colors is associated with a specific continent! In fact, the five colors associated with the white background, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red, represent the colors of the flags of all countries at that time without exception.

” The important thing is to participate “.

Another preconceived idea to throw out the window: in reality, the baron is not the author of the phrase which has become the famous maxim of Olympism. He quoted the words of the Bishop of Pennsylvania, Ethelbert Talbot, during a toast given on July 24, 1908 in London, where the fifth edition of the Modern Games was taking place, in gratitude for a dinner offered by the British government: “Last Sunday, during the ceremony organized at Saint-Paul (London Cathedral, Editor’s note) in honor of the athletes, the Bishop of Pennsylvania recalled in happy terms: the important thing in these Olympics is is less about gaining than taking part in it. »

“Wars break out because nations misunderstand each other. We will not have peace until the prejudices which today separate the different races have disappeared. To achieve this, what could be better than periodically bringing together young people from all countries for friendly tests of muscular strength and agility? ” Stone coubertin

As for the Olympic truce which was one of the noble motives of the enterprise of this champion of diversity and universalism, needless to say, it will not, alas, serve to prevent either of the two great world wars, not more than it had stopped any ongoing conflict in Antiquity.

Passionate about rugby

We often forget it, but this sport was the basis of the educational project and philosophy of Baron de Coubertin, who was also a major player in the establishment of rugby in France at the end of the 19th century.

Misogynist

The “role of the woman remains what it has always been: she is above all the companion of the man, the future mother of the family, and must be raised with a view to this immutable future”.

An inveterate misogynist – to his credit, like most of his IOC comrades at the time – this fierce opponent of the Frenchwoman Alice Milliat, who launched the first Women’s World Games in August 1922 in Paris, explained in 1901 that the “ The role of the woman remains what it has always been: she is above all the man’s companion, the future mother of the family, and must be raised with a view to this immutable future. In 1908, he was offended by “the most unsightly spectacle that human eyes can contemplate”: a woman on a sled. Until the end of his life, the Baron remained firmly opposed to the participation of women in high-level athletics competitions. This did not prevent the number of women participating in the Olympic Games from multiplying sixfold under his presidency.

Hitler and Nazism

Although withdrawn from the IOC and physically absent from the Berlin Games in 1936, this fervent defender of colonialism who believed that “races are of different value”, provided implicit support for the Games of the 11th Olympiad organized by the Nazi regime and remaining in History as the Games of Shame, with the following speech: “May the German people and their leader be thanked for what they have just accomplished”. Asked about his position, Coubertin replied: “How would you like me to repudiate the celebration of the XI Olympiad? Since this glorification of the Nazi regime was the emotional shock which allowed the development that they experienced.

In his book published in May 2014, entitled “Pierre de Coubertin, the man who did not invent the Olympic Games” (1), journalist Aymeric Mantoux proves that there were indeed direct links between him and Adolf Hitler. “He evolved throughout his life, he often changed his mind. But it is much more complex than the few sentences that we come out with each time,” explains his great-great-niece, Diane de Navacelle de Coubertin, to the newspaper “Le Parisien”, May 19, 2024. “We reduced to writings that shock us today. At the time, they were not shocking,” she adds.

Olympia

On September 2, 1937, Coubertin collapsed from a heart attack in a park in Geneva. He was buried in Lausanne, but, in accordance with the wishes he had expressed in his will, his heart was buried in Olympia, in a marble stele commemorating the reestablishment of the Olympic Games.