Approximately 1500 years after
the official abolishment of the Games, by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I (393
AD), a young Frenchmen named Pierre de Coubertin began their revival. Coubertin
is now known as le Rénovateur. Coubertin was a French aristocrat born on
January 1, 1863. He was only seven years old when France was overrun by the
Germans during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Some believe that Coubertin
attributed the defeat of France not to its military skills but rather to the
French soldiers' lack of vigor. After examining the education of the German,
British, and American children, Coubertin decided that it was exercise, more
specifically sports, that made a well-rounded and vigorous person.
Coubertin's attempt to get France
interested in sports was not met with enthusiasm. Still, Coubertin persisted.
In 1890, he organized and founded a sports organization, Union des Sociétés
Francaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA). Two years later, Coubertin first
pitched his idea to revive the Olympic Games. At a meeting of the Union des
Sports Athlétiques in Paris on November 25, 1892, Coubertin stated: “Let us
export our oarsmen, our runners, our fencers into other lands. That is the true
Free Trade of the future; and the day it is introduced into Europe the cause of
Peace will have received a new and strong ally. It inspires me to touch upon
another step I now propose and in it I shall ask that the help you have given
me hitherto you will extend again, so that together we may attempt to realise
[sic], upon a basis suitable to the conditions of our modern life, the splendid
and beneficent task of reviving the Olympic Games”. However, his speech did not
inspire action.
Though Coubertin was not the
first to propose the revival of the Olympic Games, he was certainly the most
well-connected and persistent of those to do so. Two years later, Coubertin
organized a meeting with 79 delegates who represented nine countries. He
gathered these delegates in an auditorium that was decorated by neoclassical
murals and similar additional points of ambiance. At this meeting, Coubertin
eloquently spoke of the revival of the Olympic Games. This time, Coubertin
aroused interest.
The delegates at the conference
voted unanimously for the Olympic Games. The delegates also decided to have
Coubertin construct an international committee to organize the Games. This
committee became the International Olympic Committee (IOC; Comité Internationale
Olympique) and Demetrios Vikelas from Greece was selected to be its first
president. Athens was chosen as the location for the revival of the Olympic
Games and the planning began.
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