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¡°Oh, sports Entertainment of gods/Power of life/You come down promptly/Into the opening of the gray woods/The toiling masses become excited/You are like a buoyant envoy/Nodding and smiling to elders. You are dawn appearing above the peak/Shining in the dark ground.¡±
These are the sentences from the famous poem ¡°Ode to Sport¡± written by Baron de Coubertin in 1912. The man, respectably regarded as the founder of the Modern Olympics, sowed the kindling seed to resurrect the Olympics in modern times with his lifetime dedication to sports and sportsmanship.
This Olympic symbol of 5 multicolored, intersecting rings was designed by Coubertin, symbolizing the union of the 5 continents and the meeting of athletes from different countries for the Olympic Games, who will enter for the fair and frank games with goodwill.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin was born on January 1, 1863 into an aristocratic family in Paris and he spent his happy childhood in Normandy, which obviously laid a good foundation for the healthy growth for the rest of his life. As a young boy, he was already good at boxing, rowing, fencing, horse riding and other sports. He was also fond of painting. He could play the piano. In his green years spent in the quiet family manor, what kept inspiring him was the serial discoveries between 1875 and 1881 of the ruins where the ancient Olympic Games was held. The grand white stone columns, the huge tophus stands, and the gallant Greek males in the ancient patched frescoes plucked the young boy¡¯s heartstrings like the waves of Aegean Sea.
In 1880, Coubertin entered famous Saint-Cyr in France but soon after he left the school and then entered Politics Institute of Paris and the law school of University of Paris where he obtained academic degrees in literature, science and law. As a young man, Coubertin was devoted to educational cause and research of history. It was the defeat of France in France-Prussian War that stimulated his ideas of saving the country through education and sports, and 8 years later Coubertin was appointed as secretary general of the preparatory committee of ¡°All French Schools¡¯ Physical Training¡±. He also sponsored ¡°All French Schools¡¯ Sports Association¡±. He established Pierre de Coubertin Prize to commend the best sportsmen. His noble birth and abundant fortune were contributed little by little during the process of realizing his ideals.
Then it was not until his1894 trip to Greece that he really defined the objective of his lifetime struggle. That year he paid a visit to the source land of the Olympics. While standing between the blue sea and the lofty mountain ranges, he found that the unlimited yearning for the Olympic spirit formed in his childhood was awakening and that the idea of promoting the international sports with the ancient Olympic spirit was filling in his heart like wildly-growing spring grass.
In 1892, Coubertin delivered his famous speech ¡°Reviving the Olympics¡± for the first time, formally stating his idea of reviving and establishing the modern Olympics. In 1894, at his behest, the ¡°Conference for Reviving the Olympics¡± was held in Paris. The delegations from 14 European and American countries unanimously adopted the Olympic Charter and determined the objective of the modern Olympics. This conference also decided that the first modern Olympic Games would be held in April, 1896 in Greece, the source land of the Olympics and that later on the 1894, the international Olympic Committee was established and the famous Greek poet Demetrius Vikelas was elected the first president and Pierre de Coubertin was elected secretary general. On April 5, 1896, the 1st Olympic Games was held in Athens, Greece, after which Coubertin was elected second president of IOC.
The Olympic symbol we see today, the 5 multicolored, intersecting rings, was designed by Coubertin, symbolizing the union of the 5 continents and the meeting of the athletes from the different countries for the Olympic Games, who would enter for the fair and frank games with goodwill. The slogan of ¡°swifter, higher, stronger¡± was also initiated by Coubertin and finally adopted in the conference.
Coubertin departed his life in 1937, and his heart was buried in the source land of the Olympics¡ªat the foot of the Cronus in Olympia, Greece, for the purpose of letting him listen to the unceasing steps of the Olympic athletes¡ |
