OLYMPISM

Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) was the founder of the modern Olympic Games and dedicated his life to the Olympic movement. He was primarily an educationalist and saw sport in general and the Olympics in particular as a way of promoting physical culture and the development of will and character. He developed this vision as a young man and spent time in England and the United States studying schools and universities and their practice of sport as well as practising many sports himself. He was hugely influenced by Thomas Arnold and Rugby School, although he visited many of the leading public schools during a tour in the late 1880s. He also found the idea of the Olympic Games being carried out on a small scale in a Shropshire village called Much Wenlock by a Dr Brooke. He remarked on a tremendous contrast to the French educational system, which regarded physical effort as antithetical to the development of the mind, preferring what he called inertion to exertion.

This volume, expertly edited by Professor Norbert Muller of the University of Mainz, is the most comprehensive book of Coubertin's writings and is organised in four main parts: Revelation, including his search for a new education; Olympic dimensions, including historical perspectives on Olympism; philosophical and educational dimensions of Olympism; and the Olympic movement. There is a large number of original documents and letters, but also period photographs and reprints of various programmes. Coubertin was hugely creative and prolific, leaving some 15,000 printed pages of writing. He delighted in ideas, even dedicating a special page to them in 1889, where he writes: 'to think, imagine, invent, devise: what pleasure.'

From the beginning, Olympism was an educational movement referring to a moral attitude of the individual based on the cult of effort and what he called eurythmy (not I think related to Steiner). He even refers to Olympism as a religion, the cultivation of intense will develop through the practice of sport, but surrounded with art and thought. The official definition is: 'Olympism is a philosophy of life, exhorting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.' As some readers will know, this is the basis of my Olympic and Paralympic values programme, Inspire> Aspire. It is notable that the will is highlighted, and every athlete will recognise the need to develop the will as part of any training regime. This is a missing element in much of modern philosophy of education. Coubertin himself included character as a component of the human being along with body and mind, taking the view that character is not formed by the mind, but above all by the body. I think this is a somewhat one-sided view, but important nevertheless. In addition, the concept of peace and goodwill between nations is emphasised, reflected by respect and friendship as the Olympic values along with excellence - striving for human perfection through high performance. In an article in 1903, Coubertin foreshadows the idea of the Guinness Book of Records eventually developed by the McWhirter twins in the 1950s.

The best-known motto of the Olympics – citius, altius, fortius - originates with Fr Didon in Arcueil. Symbolically, this stands for having a quick and vibrant mind, the uplifting of the individual and courage in life. Then, developing the idea of a sound mind and a sound body, the ardent mind in the trained body. The most comprehensive statement of the philosophical foundation of Olympism was a speech by Cooubertin in 1935 in which he outlined the various characteristics. This included religion, where the athlete chisels the body through exercise and honours the gods as well as his country, race and flag. Then there is the idea of Olympism as an aristocracy or elite, and even a knighthood of brothers in arms united by a common bond. Truce is also important and finally beauty - the involvement of the arts and the mind in the Games. This is most apparent in the ceremonies, which distinguish the Games from World Championships. Originally, there were competitions in various artistic disciplines, but Coubertin laid great emphasis on the symbolic and ritual aspects of the occasion. These included the Olympic oath from 1920, the flag and the procedure for handing the Games on to the next nation. We saw how movingly this worked at London 2012. The youth of all countries in the world is invited to meet again in four years.

One of the Olympic letters is devoted to Theodore Roosevelt as a model of Olympism as a way of life. I have one of his book of essays entitled The Strenuous Life. As a young man, he was a weakling, lacking decisiveness and endurance. A particular incident made him resolve to toughen himself up, so he started boxing and cow-herding. At the end of a physically demanding day, he would plunge into the reading of the classics in order to strengthen his mind in a comparable fashion. The result was a man of immense physical and mental strength, the emblem of the ardent mind in a trained body. Incidentally, he was also a great nature lover and spent a day with Sir Edward Grey birdwatching in Hampshire, as recorded in Grey's delightful book Fallodon Papers.

A meeting held in Paris in 1894 resolved to revive the Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. Coubertin describes the political implications of Greece wanting to retain the Olympics permanently in Athens after the resounding success of the first Games. However, he made it very clear that the Olympics were a worldwide movement and needed to move to different cities every four years. There was great support for the concept, but all sorts of political issues had to be resolved over the years, including the fallout of two world wars. The Berlin Olympics in 1936 were the last witnessed by Coubertin and they were meant to move to Tokyo in 1940. All these developments are described in great detail.

Coubertin wrote five volumes of autobiography, the last of which was entitled The Unfinished Symphony. Every human being, he thought, belongs to the great orchestra of mankind: 'most of us, it must be admitted, play a very minor role. Not everyone is able to fit in; some never succeed in finding their place. Very few are favoured by fate to the extent of being allowed to compose pieces themselves. Rarer still of those who are privileged to hear them performed during their lifetime.' Coubertin was one of these, and his Olympic idea lives on. It is inspiring to read about the genesis and manifestation of the Olympic movement and ideal, especially for those of us who share Coubertin's passion for education. However, he demonstrates the power of a vision carried through with persistence, which is something we can all achieve in our own way.