Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Robert McNamara. History Expert. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. He was Amazon. I wanted to give the world, in an enduring way, an ancient institution whose guiding principle was becoming necessary for its health.
Cite this Article Format. McNamara, Robert. History of the Olympics in Rome, Italy. Cities and the Quest to Host the Olympics Games. Racial Controversies and the Olympic Games. History of Women's Basketball in America. History of the Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. Biography of James Naismith, Inventor of Basketball. Find out the interesting information about the French historian and educator in Facts about Baron de Coubertin.
This man is also famous as the founder of the international Olympic committee. He was born on January 1st, and passed away on September Do you know that he is nicknamed as the father of modern day Olympic Games? Here are other interesting facts about Coubertin below:.
As I have stated before he was born on 1 January in Paris. He came from the French aristocratic family. In the family, Coubertin was the fourth child. Since he was raised by his aristocratic family, there is no need to wonder that he received good education. There were many kinds of topics that he learned. Most of them were about history and education. During his life, he grew under the profound change in France.
He had a formative year during his educational era. In , against his parents' wishes, Coubertin traveled to England to visit such schools and to learn about the British attitude toward sports and physical conditioning. It would be the first of twelve such visits, during which he would develop his lifelong philosophy on physical education.
Coubetin also traveled to the United States, studied physical education there, and wrote and spoke to American, British, and French audiences about his interests. He was a prolific writer, producing over 20 books and hundreds of articles during his lifetime. As Richard D. Mandell wrote in The First Modern Olympics, most of his writing was dry and repetitive, and he had to use part of his vast fortune to pay for its publication.
His works on the early Olympics have survived because of their historical interest. Coubertin's grandiose plans for wholesale reform of the French educational system never came to pass; not did his desire to revitalize all of French culture. However, he will be remembered forever as the founder and organizer of the modern Olympic Games. The Games, originally celebrated in ancient Greece as part of ancient religious beliefs, had not been held for almost years. As Mandell pointed out, Coubertin had little contact with athletes, but he was superb at convincing bureaucrats and wealthy supporters that the Olympics were a worthy cause.
The fact that he was an energetic and optimistic member of the nobility made it hard for them to refuse. He organized banquets and assemblies at which he prodded them to take action. He presented his new Olympic Committee as a strong and growing organization worthy of their support. However, as Mandell noted, "His ' Comite international olympique'-confidently referred to at the front of brochures, listed at the top of letterheads, and accompanied by the five interlocking rings in the common colors representing those on all the national flags-was for many years the frailest of paper structures.
Coubertin became established as an expert on physical education. He began a campaign to convince French authorities that a program of physical education, more organized amateur athletic opportunities, and a reform of the educational system, were necessary, and that he should be placed in charge of such a program. Some bureaucrats were convinced, to the extent that they commissioned him to hold a "Congress for Physical Education in June Although he was empowered to charge admission to the congress, Coubertin distributed free tickets instead, and held exhibitions of horse riding, fencing, and track and field.
He also arranged for a soccer game, rowing, tennis, and other events. Surprisingly, Coubertin was attacked by many for holding this congress. His attackers felt that his methods were too British, and that he was turning his back on the French way. However, the criticism brought him a great deal of publicity. In the next few years, he continued to write, speak, and hold athletic events. In , at a "jubilee" of the French Union of Athletic Sports Societies, according to Mandell, he made his first proposal for the institution of the modern Olympic Games: "I hope you will help us in the future as you have in the past to pursue this new project.
What I mean is that, on a basis conforming to modern life, we reestablish a great and magnificent institution, the Olympic Games. His proposal did not meet with much enthusiasm, since most of those present had no idea what he was talking about.
The original Olympic Games were part of ancient Greek religious ritual, and athletes customarily competed without clothes. Was this what Coubertin meant? Coubertin himself was unsure what form these new games would take, or what countries would be involved, but he was undeterred by the lack of support.
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