Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s commitment to egalitarianism—the fundamental idea that all people are of equal worth and social status—was so deeply ingrained he extended it to all the sports at the Olympic Games. Although he personally considered rowing the finest form of exercise and loved fencing and boxing, he refused to allow a hierarchy of sports at the Games, treating all forms of muscular activity with equality. In the early years of the Olympic Movement, he wanted all forms of sport in the Games.

Today, I’m sure he would agree that the size of the Games require certain limitations on teams, sports and disciplines, but he would surely embrace the changes in the sports program we have seen recently—to give many new emerging sports their day in the sun.

This quote comes from All Sports, an article the Baron published in the Olympic Review in 1910.