Twenty-five years after he had launched the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was still fighting to ensure that playing fields, gymnasiums and sport were available to the poorest people of every nation.  The idea of ‘Sport for All’ was central to his vision and the mission of the worldwide movement he had birthed.  He believed in the social value of sport as a force for egalitarianism and a strong support for democracy.  He made that point in a speech celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the modern Olympics in 1919, the year after World War I had ended. 

“The pleasure of the muscles, that source of joy, energy, calm, and purity, must be placed within the grasp of the most humble.”