In the spirit of the Olympic détente established between North Korea and South Korea—and in light of their joint announcement that they will march into Opening Ceremonies as one team on February 9th—we are continuing the theme of peace through sport found throughout Coubertin’s writings.  Today’s quote is another passage from his famous gold-medal winning poem, Ode to Sport, which he submitted to the Cultural Olympiad at the Stockholm 1912 Games under the dual pseudonym, Georges Hohrod and M. Eschbach.  Note the immediate relevance of this entire message to the circumstances unfolding at the Pyeonchang Olympic Winter Games in Korea today.

“O Sport, you are Peace! You promote happy relations between peoples, bringing them together in reverence for strength which is controlled, organized and self-disciplined. Through you, the young of all the world learn to respect one another, and thus the diversity of national traits becomes a source of generous and friendly rivalry.”