In April of 1927, two years after he had retired from the presidency of the Olympic Movement, Baron Pierre de Coubertin visited Ancient Olympia at the invitation of the Greeks.  He was there to be honored as his hosts mounted a white marble stele in the sacred Altis with his name inscribed on it.  His daughter, Renée, who had recently become his helper, traveled with him and certainly added to the joy of the occasion, which recognized his singular role in resurrecting the modern Olympic Games.  While there, he penned a message, To the Young Athletes of all Nations, from which this passage is taken.

“My friends and I have not labored to restore the Olympic Games to you in order to make them a fitting object for a museum or a cinema; nor is it our wish that mercantile or electoral interests should seize upon them. Our objective in reviving an institution twenty-five centuries old was that you should become new masters of the religion of sports, as our great ancestors conceived it.”

Photo:  Pierre de Coubertin and daughter Renée in Olympia in 1927