Did you know that the visionary and founding father of the modern Olympics also won a gold medal?

Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) was a French aristocrat and intellectual overflowing with ambition and ideas. As a child he stood out in his classes and ranked among the absolute best. Being a talented aristocrat, a glorious career in the military or politics would have been easily achievable, but he decided to dedicate his life to his passion: (physical) education.

De Coubertin believed in Ancient Greek education ideals. To become perfect citizens and virtuous men, young men needed to develop both intellectually and physically. On trips to England De Coubertin had noticed that physical education and sporting competitions played a relatively large role in English education already and he made it his goal to change the French curriculum in a similar fashion. He credited the global success of England to its education and used the loss in the Franco-Prussian war as another argument to sell the importance of physical education to French principals and the French education ministry.

Unfortunately for him, it didn’t work out. However, his passion for Ancient Greece and sport gave him another idea: revive the Olympic games. He was far more successful in this endeavour and eventually convinced the king of Greece to host the first games in 1896 in Athens. Greece was fairly young as a modern nation and could use some national and cultural revival.

The two following editions of the Olympics were relatively small and overshadowed by world fairs hosted at the same time in the same cities, but by 1906 the event started to take off. De Coubertin, ever the ambitious man, added another element to the 1912 games, an art competition, as he believed art and sport are intertwined. The peculiar thing is that he would be among the first winners. He secretly submitted the poem ‘Ode to Sport’ using a pseudonym and won a gold medal in literature. It is a bit less impressive given the fact that he was part of the jury.

All in all, De Coubertin should get a gold medal for his efforts to promote physical education and revive the Olympics. 

Originally posted on Instagram on August 4, 2021