Aug - Coubertin Speaks

Aug 31

… it is sport, with all its violent contact, its options and its opportunities, that prepares (excuse me! that can prepare) the body and the character for the battles of life.

If the modern Games are to exercise the influence I desire for them they must in their turn show beauty and inspire reverence—a beauty and a reverence infinitely surpassing anything hitherto …

Olympism has sailed serenely over the world like a gleaming airship.

Today, bridges have been built over the ignorance of yesteryear.

Above all, Hellenism is the cult of humanity in its present life and in its state of equilibrium.

Countless stadiums around the world now ring with the shouts of athletic joy, as they once rose from the gymnasiums of Greece.

… to the rest of the world, the revival of the Olympiads was still no more than a brilliant, picturesque item of news, (while) on Greek minds it was having the effect of the most potent elixir.

By conceiving the new Games on a completely international level … I had not only chosen the only practical means of ensuring their continued survival but at the same time had served the best interests of Hellenism.

Normal training may … also contribute to moral progress by the development of the will, of courage and of self-confidence, and also to intellectual progress by producing self-possession and mental sanity.

The principles that form the basis … of democracy are found in the practice of sports.

The athlete enjoys his effort. He likes the constraint that he imposes on his muscles and nerves, through which he comes close to victory even if he does not manage to achieve it.

To have an effective impact on the city, the nation, and the race, sports must be engaged in individually and for an extended period of time, insofar as possible.

(Mottoes) … correspond to some need or instinct in humanity, because both barbarians and civilized peoples have used them with equal promptness.

'The gods are the friends of the Games’ said Pindar, using that term in its most athletic sense.

Celebrated with an ever-increasing brilliancy of success, the Olympic Games have given proof of sufficient vitality to assure their future ...

The individual who truly deserves that name ‘Olympian’ is the competitor in the modern pentathlon.

Sport plants the seeds of … qualities such as coolness, confidence, (and) decisiveness.

In order for Olympism to become manifest, the athletic instinct must be surrounded by esthetic and moral concerns, as well. It must invite philosophy to arbitrate its competitions.

It is good for every country in the world to have the honor of hosting the Games and to celebrate them in their own way, according to the imagination and means of its people.

It is my profound conviction that (the Olympic Games) are one of the cornerstones of progress and health for the youth of our day.

There is a magnificent career ahead for athleticism, provided (it) avoids overly-narrow structures, discards outdated distinctions, and above all condemns self-centered calculation and self-interested attention.

The seeds of art are mysterious, full of caprice and oddity.... Education of the eyes, the ears, and the fingers is never wasted on anyone.

There are two trends in modern athletics … It is becoming democratic and international.

Above all one must have a high and serene conception of the twofold role of sport … within the great modern democracies: the role of (shaping) ... human equilibrium … and the role of social educator.

Ancient Olympia drew its holiness from the feeling of patriotic piety that imbued the place, that saturated its atmosphere and enveloped its monuments.

I hereby assert once more my claims for being sole author of the whole project … The Olympics will bring Athleticism to a high state of perfection, infusing new ambition in the lives of the rising generation.

It is my belief that no education, particularly in democratic times, can be good and complete without the aid of athletics …

Athletae proprium est se ipsum noscere, ducere et vincere. It is up to the athlete to know, to govern and to conquer himself.

I saw the necessity for re-establishing the Olympic Games as a supreme consecration of the cult of athletics practiced in the purest spirit of true sport—proudly, joyfully, and loyally.

We are rebels, and that is why the press, which has always supported beneficial revolutions, has understood and helped us.

Humanity is like a pendulum which seeks equilibrium but achieves it only transiently on its ineluctable flight from one excess to another.

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