Modern Olympics' Tireless Founding Father

Pierre, the Baron de Coubertin, served as the 2nd President of the International Olympic Committee, but his importance in the Olympic Movement far overshadows that simple statement. Although recent scholarship has shown that he was not the only person who had the idea to begin international Olympic Games, he is certainly the person still mostly responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896. For this effort, he is correctly termed le rénovateur.

Born in Paris as Pierre Frédy, he was descended from a noble line which had lived in France for over 500 years. After his preliminary studies he entered law school in 1884 although he never intended to practice law, and he left after one year, enrolling instead in the École libre de sciences politiques. Coubertin had early on decided that his goal would be the reform of the French educational system. He based this reform on ideas he had gleaned from visits to England, observing their educational system, the first of which occurred in 1883.

From England, Coubertin learned of Thomas Arnold's theory about the principal element in English male education: sports. Arnold had become headmaster of Rugby school in 1828 and, although not an innovator in teaching methods, his aim was to reform Rugby school by making it a school for gentlemen. Coubertin studied his system of school sports, student self-government, and post-graduate athletic associations, and hoped to incorporate them into the French educational system. During the 1880s school sport competitions started in Paris. For the first time, high school students played football (soccer). Shortly thereafter, the Racing Club de France was founded, with Coubertin as an officer of the club. In 1888 Coubertin published the results of his studies on the British educational system, which were more or less a reflection of Arnold's theories. Coubertin next formed a committee designed to be responsible for physical education in schools. The committee was mostly run by Coubertin, but found little support among the French public.