Pierre
de Coubertin, the son of an artist, was born in Paris in 1863. A talented
sportsman, he took part in boxing, fencing, horseriding and rowing.
Coubertin
was an educationalist who attempted to reform the French education
system. He was interested in sports education as he believed it had
the potential to develop what he called "moral energy" and
eventually became Secretary General of the Union of French Societies
of Athletic Sports (USFSA).
Coubertin
announced that he intended to revive the Olympic Games and on 23rd
June, 1894, established the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
at a meeting held at the University of Sorbonne in Paris.
The first
Olympic Games of the modern era were held in Athens in 1896. Coubertin
became president of the International Olympic Committee, a post he
held for 29 years. During the First World War
Coubertin moved the headquarters of the IOC to Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pierre
de Coubertin, who
published his autobiography, Olympic Memoirs,
in 1931, died of a heart attack in Geneva on 2nd September, 1937.
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