Home > Pierre de Coubertin

Born in Paris into an aristocratic family, De Coubertin was inspired by his visits to British and American colleges and universities, and set out to improve education. Part of this improvement should be sports education, which he thought to be an important part of the personal development of young people.

He conceived of an international competition to promote athletics. A growing international interest in the ancient Olympics, fed by recent archaeological finds at Olympia, De Coubertin devised a plan to revive the Olympic Games.

To publicize these plans, he organised an international congress on June 23, 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris. There he proposed to reinstate the ancient Olympic Games. The congress led to the establishing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of which De Coubertin became the general secretary. It was also decided that the first modern Olympics would take place in AthensAcropolis in central Athens is home to ancient monuments of Athens — a mainstay of its thriving tourism industry Athens ( Greek: Athina is the capital of Greece, and also the capital of the Attica region of Greece. A cosmopolitan modern city, Athens is al, GreeceGreece formally called the Hellenic Republic (in Greek: ) Hellenike Demokratia , is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. It is bounded on land by Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania and that they would be held every four years. These GamesThe Games of the I Olympiad were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. These were the first celebration of the Olympic Games since the recreation of the ancient Greek Olympics with the founding of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. Games of the I Olym proved a success, and De Coubertin took over the IOC presidency when Demetrius VikelasDemetrius Vikelas ( February 15, 1835- July 20, 1908) was the first president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Born in Ermoupolis, on Syros, Vieklas represented the Pan-Hellenic Gymnastic Club at the 1894 Paris congress convened by De Coubert stepped down after the Olympics in his own country.

Despite the initial success, the Olympic Movement faced hard times, as the 1900The Games of the II Olympiad were held in 1900 in Paris, France. Despite Greek efforts to keep the Games in their country, the IOC decided to hold them at a different place each year. The Games competed for visitors with the World's Fair, which was also h (in De Coubertin's own Paris) and 1904 GamesThe 1904 Summer Olympics formally known as the Games of the III Olympiad were held in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States from July 1 to November 23, 1904. Chicago, Illinois won the original bid to host the games, but the organisation of the Louisian were both swallowed by international fairs, and received little attention.

This changed for the better after the 1906 Summer OlympicsThe fourth modern Olympic games, held in Athens. They are also known as the 1906 Intercalated Games . First Intercalated Games These games were scheduled by the IOC in 1901 as the first Intercalated Games; regular Olympic Games, but always held in Athens,, and the Olympic Games grew to become the most important sports event. De Coubertin stepped down from his IOC presidency after the 1924 OlympicsThe Games of the VIII Olympiad were held in 1924 in Paris, France. Paris was chosen to host the Games over bids of Amsterdam, Berlin, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and Rome. Games of the VIII Olympiad Nations participating44 Athletes participating3,092 (2,9 in Paris, which proved much more successful than the first attempt in that city in 1900. He was succeeded as president by Belgian Henri de Baillet-Latour.

De Coubertin remained Honorary President of the IOC until he died in 1937 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was buried in Lausanne (the seat of the IOC), although his heart was buried separately in a monument near the ruins of ancient Olympia.