When asked why he revived the Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin often said, in brief, “to ennoble sport.”  As he saw it, sport had a vital role to play in education, and through the Games, he intended to infuse sport with a prestige that would elevate its role in society and provide the Olympic Movement with a respected voice of influence in international affairs.  He knew that blending sport and culture in solemn ceremonies filled with meaningful rituals and symbols would be essential to help him achieve these goals—and he also knew that the nobility he wanted for sport would take time to develop.  This quote is from his article, “Why I Revived the Olympic Games,” which appeared in the British Fortnightly Review in 1908 at the time of the first London Olympics.

“The grandeur and dignity of processions and attitudes, the impressive splendor of ceremonies, the concurrence of all the arts, popular emotion and generous sentiment, must all in some sort collaborate together. This cannot be achieved by a single Olympiad, nor even by three or four; it will need at least a quarter of a century. But, then, when one aspires to create or recreate institutions of this magnitude, the first condition is not to be in a hurry.”