Across the course of his career, Baron Pierre de Coubertin bemoaned the influence of too much specialization in sport.  He felt that the rote mass gymnastics exercises that had dominated physical fitness in the mid-nineteenth century had created far too much conformity in the traditions of European sport.  In reviving the Olympic Games, the Baron sought to promote innovation and creativity in competition and a wide ranging appreciation for new and evolving sports.  He contributed to the eclecticism of modern sport personally through the invention of the Modern Pentathlon.  If he were around today, he would undoubtedly applaud the innovations that are bringing new forms of competition—like sport climbing—to the Olympic program. Today’s passage is from “Olympic Letter IX:  The Modern Pentathlon,” which the Baron wrote in 1918.

“The whole evolutionary movement toward athletic eclecticism is still in its early stages, but it is coming at a good time, since in this area as in so many others, we were becoming mired in particularly fruitless specialization, as far as manly improvement is concerned.”