Once again we return to Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s gold-winning Olympic poem, Ode to Sport, which he composed under the dual pseudonym of Georges Hohrod and M. Eschbach for the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Arts Competition.  This particular stanza reflects Coubertin’s lifelong emphasis on the joy of effort—the unique and inspiring joy found in sport.  He writes here of the uplifting emotions that flow from physical effort and the psychological benefits that lead from the competitive moment to the greater joy of life.  

“O Sport, you are Joy! At your demand, bodies dance and eyes smile; blood races abundantly through the arteries. Thoughts stretch out on a brighter, clearer horizon. You bring salutary diversion from distress to the sorrowful, you enable the happy to fully taste their joie de vivre.”