While Baron Pierre de Coubertin ultimately took full credit for being ‘the sole author’ of the launch of the modern Olympic Games, he acknowledged his effort fell within a great global sports movement.  In terms of previous Olympic events, there were the immediate precedents of four editions of the Zappas Olympic Games in Athens, Greece between 1859 and 1890, and the forty+ editions of the Much Wenlock Olympian Games in the Shropshire countryside of England, both of which the Baron was destined to build on.  Overall, however, the impetus came from the growth of sport in England, the United States and various European countries that began to foster an increasing demand for international competition.  The Baron, in essence, harnessed this international sports movement and built consensus for an Olympic resurrection of modern character in Games that would be hosted in a different world capital every four years.  He guided that movement toward the launch of the modern Games in Paris in June of 1894.  Today’s quote comes from Coubertin’s article in the Official Report of “The Olympic Games of Athens 1896.”