A few months after the inaugural 1896 Athens Olympic Games ended, Baron Pierre de Coubertin wrote an article providing his perspective to American readers for “The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine.”  While those first Games produced an emotional tsunami across Greece, news of the events and the first Olympic champions gained only modest coverage in the newspapers of the world capitals.  In his article, the Baron acknowledged the fact that the impact and influence of the Games had yet to register beyond their host city and country, but he adamantly believed his resurrected vision would one day have influence all over the world.  How right he was!  The first page and one of the illustrations from his article are shown below. 

“On the world the Olympic Games have, of course, exerted no influence as yet; but I am profoundly convinced that they will do so. May I be permitted to say that this was my reason for founding them? Modern athletics need to be unified and purified.”