As he assessed the impact of the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games—the first Games after the devastating loss of life in World War I—Baron Pierre de Coubertin believed the world had finally come to understand the true meaning of his Olympic festival.  It was, in essence, a festival of human unity, demonstrating on multiple levels that men and women could find common ground in the shared effort of staging a grand international celebration of sport.  From his perspective, the Olympic festival touched the timeless, primeval origins of community and restored the bonds that make us all one.  Today’s quote is from the Baron’s essay, “The Contribution of the Seventh Olympiad," which appeared in La Revue Sportive Illustée in 1920.

“At long last, the primordial nature of these festivals was understood—festivals that are above all, at a time of dangerous specialization and regrettable ‘compartmentalization,’ festivals of human unity. The effort of the muscles and of the mind, mutual assistance and competition, exalted patriotism and intelligent cosmopolitism, the personal interest of the champion and the self-denial of the team member—all are bundled together in an incomparable synthesis to perform a common human task.”