In a letter to his colleagues in the International Olympic Committee in January 1919, just two months after the armistice ending World War I was signed, Baron Pierre de Coubertin warned his colleagues that critics would emerge as the Olympic Movement renewed its drive toward ever greater success.  While this warning sounds negative, it indicates the Baron had an optimistic view of the future of the Olympic Games.  In this same letter, he expressed his belief that Olympism would play a key part in building a new world and civil society from the ashes of war—and he wanted his colleagues to be ready to put sport at service of humanity in each of their countries.  But he also wanted them to be prepared to address the critics who thought that sport and the Olympic Games were unnecessary distractions. 

“With success comes risk, and the greater the success, the heavier the consequences. Excesses can provoke reactions that might compromise the results achieved.”