The virtues of sport are many, but two that seemed worthy of full faith to Pierre de Coubertin were the attributes of sport that teach morality and foster peace.  His belief in these virtues was unshakable across the course of his career.  They informed and helped shape his philosophy of Olympism.  They served as foundational elements in his concept for the creation of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement that sustains them.  It’s clear today that he intended, through the Movement, to spread the moral virtues of sport to every nation that participates in the Games and help encourage the development of peace in the process.

This quote appeared in International Understanding and Contribution to World Peace, a brochure produced by the International Olympic Committee in the late 1990s.  It is combined below in full form with another quote we published on January 5th.

“I believe in the moral and the peaceful virtues of sport. On the playing fields men are no longer political or social friends or enemies, but only fellow players playing the same Game.”