Baron Pierre de Coubertin waxed eloquently for the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Arts Competition and won the gold medal in literature for his poem, Ode to Sport.  We have quoted from Ode on beauty and peace several times already and will draw on it again before the year is out.  Today’s quote, comes from the verse VIII, ‘O Sport, you are Progress!,’in which the Baron celebrates the physical benefits of sport and games.  It’s interesting to note that the poem was submitted under the pseudonym Georges Hohrod and M. Eschbach.  The source of this dual pen name was unknown for decades until the German Olympic scholar, Norbert Müller noticed two small villages in Alsace named Hohrod and Eschbach au Val, which were near Luttenbach, the family estate of the Baron’s wife Marie Rothan.

“You teach him wise rules which will give his effort the maximum intensity without impairing the balance of his health. “