Although he had succeeded in launching the Olympic Games and making them a centerpiece of international sport, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was not as successful in two other initiatives he had birthed in Lausanne during the war years.  With a handful of citizens of Canton Vaud, he had founded the Olympic Institute of Lausanne and the Lausanne Association of Friends of Olympism. Along with the International Olympic Committee, these organizations formed the triad of Olympism in Lausanne, as the Baron saw it.  But he had a problem, the public was not responding to the Institute or the Association of Friends with the enthusiasm with which they had embraced the Games.  In his article, “Olympic Letter I: Olympism in Lausanne,” which appeared in the Gazette de Lausanne in October 1918, he thanked the Gazette for giving him the opportunity to promote his new ideas despite the enduring public apathy he had encountered.

“These are the parts of the Olympic machine, and these are its fundamental ideas. I am not at all surprised at how slowly they are entering into public opinion. When it comes to new ideas, public opinion is like hard soil—drops of water seep into it bit by bit. In such circumstances, there is no substitute for the passage of time, provided that the drop of water is replaced every time it evaporates. I would like to thank the Gazette for giving me the opportunity to keep adding these drops. (In future articles) I will attempt to resolve any misunderstandings that may still remain about Olympism, its doctrine, the results achieved so far, and its hopes for the future.”