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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 7 (October 1, 1937.)

The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games.

When great men die some have monuments erected to their honour; others have hospitals named after them. But Baron Pierre de Coubertin, whose death was announced a short time ago, will have his name indelibly inscribed on the memory of young sportsmen by a monument unique in history.

It is not a graven image, nor is it a handsome edifice towering above all others—it is the Olympic Games!

The revival of the modern Olympic Games, the first of which were held at Athens in 1896, was due almost entirely to the energy of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

It is said that the desire for international athletics arose in his mind when, at the age of seventeen years, he began to scrutinise the weaknesses of the French people and the discouragements under which they were recovering hope and self-respect after the disastrous Franco-Prussian War. His life as a student was so gloomy, so narrow and so repellent, that he entered on a course of thorough self-examination.

He came to the conclusion that three Monarchies, two Empires and three Republics during a single century were hardly indicative of stability and he felt that somewhere in the growing youth there were faculties repressed and powers stunted, which, if properly developed, would assist in the solution of the problem of French regeneration. At this time he was a cadet at St. Cyr, with a wholly unattractive future in prospect. Accordingly, he resigned, and became a pupil in the Free School of Political Science.

For a time he contemplated a political future, but within a few years he determined to devote his life and resources to the introduction of sport into the French education. To this end he travelled widely in America and England, and felt convinced that the organisation of sport in these two English-speaking countries was of real importance to the life of the people.

It was in 1892 that Baron de Cour-bertin first propounded his desire for a new era in international sport. On November 25th of that year, at a meeting of the Union des Sports Athletiques in France, he made his first public announcement as follows:—

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“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 the further 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, upon a basis suitable to the conditions of our modern life, the splendid and bene-ficient task of reviving the Olympic Games.”

But it was not until the congress in 1894 that something definite was arrived at and when Baron de Coubertin proposed that the first of the modern Olympic Games be given to Athens and received the support of the King of Greece and the Duke of Sparta, the Games became a step nearer.

It is not my intention to trace the gradual growth of the Olympic movement from its small beginning in 1896 to the perfectly organised meeting which was held in Berlin in 1936, but I cannot conclude this note on Baron de Coubertin without making references to his inspiring work in framing the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.

He wrote the Olympic oath: “We swear that we will take part in the Olympic Games in loyal competition, respecting the regulations which govern them and desirous of participating in them in the true spirit of sportmanship for the honour of our country and for the glory of sport.”

Baron Pierre de Coubertin's dream has become a reality and every four years, when the athletes of the world gather in a foreign land, his name will be revered as the man who made a fine contribution to the Peace of the World! What finer monument could a man have?