Baron Pierre de Coubertin

Pierre de Fredi, Baron de Coubertin, was born on January 1, 1863, in Paris, at 20 de la rue Oudinot in an old family of aristocrats. This house, which he inherited from his parents, belonged to him until 1922.

The Fredi family, allied to the Strozzi, was originally Roman until a branch of the Fredi crossed the Alps to settle in France. The estate of Coubertin, located near Paris, was not damaged by the French Revolution.

From the end of the 18th century, Norman alliances made Pierre de Fredi, in his youth, stay many times at Mirville Castle in the Le Havre region. His parents were rich, Catholic and monarchist. After excelling in his studies in a Jesuit college, and receiving further education at Saint-Cyr, he very quickly turned away from the tradition which prepared him for a military or political career and decided instead to become part of the new voice of Europe, working in the reform of teaching.

A disciple of Taine, the revered French naturalist, Pierre de Coubertin was impressed by the value placed in sport among young people across the Channel. Following the example of the British, he wanted, in his own words, to "rebronze the youth of his country". He encountered a lot of resistance from the political establishment but, very persuasive, France ended up opening the doors of high schools and colleges to him.

With this first step undertaken, he wanted to develop the practice of sport and sportsmanship among those entering active life. For this, he created numerous sports organisations whose goal was to set up a "conquering France" ready to fight peacefully in the stadia. His formula has remained iconic: "For 100 to engage in physical culture, 50 must participate in sport and 20 must specialize. But for 20 to specialize, five must be capable of amazing feats." However, in creating the Modern Pentathlon (swimming, running, fencing, horse riding and shooting), he also made no secret of the fact that he advocated the preparation of men capable of bringing Alsace and Lorraine, annexed by Germany in 1870, back to France.

He became secretary general of a Committee for Physical Preparation in Education in 1888, but the physical health of French youth was no longer his sole priority. He travelled extensively throughout Europe, Great Britain and the United States, distilled his innovative ideas, prepared opinions and convinced more and more friends to share his point of view. In 1889, aged 26, he created the idea of re-establishing the Olympic Games, which had disappeared in 394 AD.

On November 25, 1892, when the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA) celebrated its fifth anniversary, Coubertin, in the Sorbonne amphitheatre, launched the idea of renovating the Olympic Games. The Games had disappeared for 15 centuries and must be revived, modernised and on a global scale, he said. On June 23, 1894, in front of an audience of personalities, he announced the creation of the event which, after some hesitation, would see its first edition take place in Athens rather than in Paris and in 1896 rather than in 1900.

His work quickly evolved at two speeds. Olympism spread like wildfire around the world. On the other hand, the organization of the Games, at least in its initial period, was fraught with difficulty. At the same time, Pierre de Coubertin married Marie Rothan, from Alsace, on March 12, 1895, and had two children. Sadly, his son would die very young and his daughter was frail.

Taking over from the Greek Demetrius Vikelas, according to the rule of the rotating presidency he remained, in fact, President of the IOC from 1896 to 1925 and, on his departure, Honorary President of the Olympic Games. For years, he was the sole authorising officer of the Games in terms of form and substance. The Charter, Olympic protocol and the athletes' oath were all his work, as are the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. In 1921, he created the Executive Board which, at the time, was not directed by the IOC President, so he participated in three of them as a guest.

Until his departure in 1925, he alone assumed all the administrative and financial burdens associated with the presidential office. In 1912, in Stockholm, under the pseudonyms Georg Hohrod (France) and M Eschbach (Germany), he won the title of Olympic champion in literature with his L'Ode au Sport. This was also the year in which Modern Pentathlon was introduced to the Olympic Games.

Coubertin died aged 74 on September 2, 1937, during a walk in Geneva. He is buried in Lausanne at the Bois-de-Vaux cemetery, but his heart was placed in a monument at the foot of Mount Kronion in Olympia, where the International Olympic Academy is located today.