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Pierre de Coubertin: The Inventor of the Olympic Tradition

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Abstract

Clastres focuses on Pierre de Coubertin’s strategies to re-establish the Olympic Games “in a modern form”, to win and hold onto the International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidency for 30 years, and to forge and spread his conception of “Olympism”. He rejects any view of Pierre de Coubertin as a manager and “social marketer” because these concepts are anachronistic. For Coubertin, new elites could arise thanks to sport only if they accepted the values and principles of the aristocracy: belief in the idea of a natural elite, mutual respect between equals, pushing one’s limits, chivalric bravery and a taste for art and literature. The influx of sportsmen was aimed at helping them the traditional elites regain the influence they had lost due to the rise of the nouveau-riche bourgeoisie.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a presentation of Coubertin’s despisers and hagiographers, see Patrick Clastres (2011), “Une historiographie contrastée”, pp. 10–17. Also Clastres (2006, 2010a, 2016).

  2. 2.

    Extracts from “Bretagne-Angleterre, 1883, 2”, p. 1 (unpublished), Sciences Po Archives, fonds “Pierre de Coubertin-Geoffroy de Navacelle”.

  3. 3.

    Pierre de Coubertin, Les exercices physiques dans les écoles d’Angleterre, d’Amérique, d’Australie et dans les colonies anglaises. Same author: L’Exposition athlétique. La Revue athlétique, 25 May 1890.

  4. 4.

    National archives, F/17/2950.

  5. 5.

    Pierre de Coubertin, L’athlétisme, son rôle et son histoire, La Revue Athlétique, 25 avril 1891, pp. 193–207. The Union chrétienne des Jeunes Gens de Paris gymnase-club is opened on 7 May 1893 and the first ever basket-ball match on the European continent is played there on the 23 December 1893.

  6. 6.

    Hence, the USFSA was torn between the Association Vélocipédique Amateur (AVA) and the Union Vélocipédique de France, which was open to professionalism.

  7. 7.

    The Bureau des Fédérations Européennes de Gymnastique, founded in 1881, stands out for being both one of the first sporting federations to be founded and for its opposition to the sports movement.

  8. 8.

    Pierre de Coubertin (1892), “Les exercices physiques dans le monde moderne. Conférence faite à la Sorbonne le 25 novembre 1892”, in: Pierre de Coubertin: Le Manifeste Olympique, with an introduction by François d’Amat, Lausanne, Les Editions du Grand Pont, 1994, pp. 45–58.

  9. 9.

    In his letter of 19 May 1896 to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, Démétrios Bikélas conceded that the Zappas Olympics “were void of any international character and would have no impact.” Archives of the Greek Olympic Committee, K1 Φ7, 1895–1896.

  10. 10.

    One of Coubertin’s colleagues at the USFSA.

  11. 11.

    During his long presidency, Olympic congresses were held in the following cities: Le Havre, on sport in health and education (1897), Brussels, on sport and physical education, especially in the colonies (1905), Paris, on art, literature and sport (1906), Lausanne, on sport’s psychology and physiology (1913), Paris (1914), Lausanne (1921) and Prague (1925) on Olympic rules.

  12. 12.

    “Règlement”, in International Olympic Committee, Annuaire, 1908, pp. 7–9, extracts.

  13. 13.

    On these notions and the debates they continue to raise see, for example, Justin Fox and Kenneth W. Shotts. Delegates or Trustees? A Theory of Political Accountability, The Journal of Politics, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Oct., 2009), pp. 1225–1237.

  14. 14.

    Pierre de Coubertin (1932), “La conquête de la Grèce”, Mémoires Olympiques, Lausanne, B.I.P.S., chapter 2, p. 23.

  15. 15.

    Pierre de Coubertin (August 1906), “Henley Royal Regatta”, Olympic Review, pp. 115–116.

  16. 16.

    Pierre de Coubertin (1932), «La conquête de la Grèce», Mémoires Olympiques, Lausanne, B.I.P.S., chapter 2, p. 23.

  17. 17.

    Pierre de Coubertin (1932), Mémoires Olympiques, p. 110.

  18. 18.

    The term appears in the Olympic Review nine times between 1901 and 1911, over a total of 1500 pages, but fourteen times between January 1912 and May 1914.

  19. 19.

    This list is based on the people present at the nine IOC meetings held between 1904 and 1914.

  20. 20.

    Pierre de Coubertin (1932), Mémoires Olympiques, p. 109.

  21. 21.

    Pierre de Coubertin (1932), ibid.

  22. 22.

    Pierre de Coubertin (1932), ibid.

  23. 23.

    Pierre de Coubertin (July 1920), «La victoire de l’Olympisme», La Revue Sportive Illustrée, 16e année, nº 2, p. 2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Sport Sciences Institute (ISSUL), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Patrick Clastres

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Correspondence to Patrick Clastres .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences du Sport, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Emmanuel Bayle

  2. Institut des Sciences du Sport, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Patrick Clastres

Biography

Biography

1 January 1863: Born into an aristocratic family in Paris.

1886: General secretary of the Committee for the Propagation of Physical Exercise in Education.

April 1887: Speech supporting the Republic “in the constitutional field”.

1888: General secretary of the Union of French Athletic Sports Clubs.

1889: General secretary of the International Conference for the Propagation of Physical Exercise in Education (Paris).

July 1890: Introduces the American word “amateurism” into the French language.

1892: Foundation of international federations for rowing, ice-skating and cycling.

25 November 1892: Speech on reviving the Olympic Games.

June 1894: Sorbonne Congress votes unanimously to revive the Olympic Games, general secretary of the International Committee of the Olympic Games (ICOG).

April 1896: Athens hosts the first modern Olympic Games, first term as ICOG president.

1897: First Olympic Congress held at Le Havre.

1901: Re-elected president of the ICOG for ten years, launch of the Olympic Review.

1904–1913: Wave of new international sport federations.

1907: Re-elected president of the IOC for ten years.

1908: IOC “internal regulations” published for the first time.

1912: Begins using the term “Olympism” increasingly frequently.

1914: Unveiling of the Olympic flag in Paris.

10 April 1915: The IOC discreetly sets up its headquarters in Lausanne.

1921: Contestations during the Olympic Congress in Lausanne, creation of the Permanent Bureau of International Sports Federations (forerunner of the AGFIS), creation of the IOC’s Executive Commission.

1925: Retires as IOC president, foundation of the Universal Pedagogical Union (1925–1930).

1928: Foundation of the International Bureau of Sports Pedagogy.

2 September 1937: Coubertin passes away in Geneva.

26 March 1938: His heart is buried in a memorial stone at Olympia.

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Clastres, P. (2018). Pierre de Coubertin: The Inventor of the Olympic Tradition. In: Bayle, E., Clastres, P. (eds) Global Sport Leaders. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76753-6_2

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