In the context of the Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin long sought to ensure equality of representation and recognition among all sports—regardless of the shifts in popularity in public opinion.  As he delivered his retirement address to the IOC in Prague in 1925, he more or less claimed some success in putting a variety of sports on a level playing field, using the term athlete as an equalizer among different sports and disciplines.

 “The wonderful name of athlete, moreover, applies equally to the gymnast who works with the horizontal bars, to the boxer, the equestrian, the rower, and the fencer, as well as to the runner and the javelin thrower. There is no scale of relative worth to be drawn up among these exercises, on the pretext that the public favors one or another of them for the time being.”