Baron Pierre de Coubertin recognized that the desire to compete was ingrained in human nature, a part of the character of our species that could not be denied. In his examination of the competitive drive, he recognized that it could be distorted by the desire to win at all costs, but he also recognized the principle of competition would never be lost—and therefore advocated channeling it into the best of all possible paths through the Olympic Games. These were all part of the arguments he made in an 1908 article entitled, Why I Revived the Olympic Games. 

"Athletics for the sake of winning something: this can be either a direct, potent incentive or a dangerous sore with which we will have to reckon. We cannot deny it is a potent incentive; the most potent of all, in fact. Human society works by the principle of competition; it has always been so, and will remain so."