The Olympic Games now occupy a permanent place in modern civilization. Every two years—winter and summer—the world turns its attention to its greatest celebration of humanity.  That permanent status is the fulfillment of Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s vision.  He always meant for the Olympic Movement to engage every nation on earth—and for the Olympic Games to function as an eternal ritual of renewal for each successive generation as it approaches the gateway of maturity.  Although each edition of the Games calls to mind the heroics of the past, it also looks to future.  Olympism adapts itself to the times at hand and prepares for the times to come.  It absorbs new trends, adapts new technologies, it shifts and transforms with society itself, remaining historic but always becoming contemporary.  As new host cities and countries welcome the world to the Games, the Games in turn elevate new cultures and customs before the world, in essence, exposing the full diversity of humanity to everyone.  That’s what the Baron wanted.  When he wrote “The Emblem and The Flag of 1914,” for the Olympic Review in 1913, he expressed that very idea in the quote which we have featured today.