Coubertin Quote for Aug, 26
Countless stadiums around the world now ring with the shouts of athletic joy, as they once rose from the gymnasiums of Greece.

As he composed his message to the first group of Olympic torchbearers in 1936, Baron Pierre de Coubertin crafted an image that captured at once the worldwide success of his peaceful movement and the athletic joy waiting at the end of the Olympia-to-Berlin torch relay.  For the Baron, the continuity of history was of critical importance—and he constantly sought to connect the Games he had resurrected with their ancient predecessors.  That was the point he was making in this passage, which appeared in Le Sport Suisse as the first torch relay got underway.  While the controversies of Berlin 1936 and the Nazi hosts would haunt the Games, the Baron held fast to his hopes that Olympism would ultimately triumph.  Part of his message to the torchbearers included his hopes that the Olympic movement he launched would one day “… bring about a vigorous and intentional peace well-suited to an age of athletics, ambition, and will.”

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