As he wrote about the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896 in the Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, addressing an American audience, Baron Pierre de Coubertin emphasized one of the central aims of the fledgling Olympic Movement: to bring the finest young athletes of the world together in order to help them to get to know each other. From the beginning, the Olympic Movement sought to break down all the walls, distances and borders that divide us. Helping young people from diverse nations and cultures get to know each other was part of the Baron’s grand strategy to transform sport into a platform for international understanding and, ultimately, worldwide friendship and peace.

“Nothing better than the International Olympic Games ... When they come to meet every four years in these contests, further ennobled by the memories of the past, athletes all over the world will learn to know one another better, to make mutual concessions, and to seek no other reward in the competition than the honor of the victory.”