GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

War and Peace and International Sport

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Thomas M. Hunt
Board of Contributors

Aug 6, 2018 | 10:00 GMT

Pierre de Coubertin (sitting, left) poses with members of the first International Olympic Committee in Athens, Greece, in 1896.

French educationalist and Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin (sitting, left) poses with members of the first International Olympic Committee in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Standing, from left are Dr. Willibald Gebhard (Germany), Jiri Guth-Jarkovsky (Bohemia), Ferenc Kemeny (Hungary), General Victor Balck (Sweden); sitting in the middle, next to Pierre de Coubertin are Demetrios Vikelas (Greece), first IOC president, and General Boutowsky (Russia).

(STR (FILES)/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Cooperation, diplomacy and friendly national competition were among the ideals touted by Pierre de Coubertin, the French aristocrat who was the driving force of the modern Olympic movement.
  • Financial and organizational woes hampered the first few Olympic events, but rivalries at the 1908 London Games set a nationalist template that drew the attention of fans.
  • While international sport can serve as a catalyst for diplomacy under the right conditions, sometimes the competitions can aggravate tensions.

International sports leaders have long billed their events as forces for peace in the world. This idealistic conception is rooted largely in the ideals of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the French aristocrat remembered as the father of the modern Olympic movement. At an 1894 meeting in Paris in which he secured support for a new set of competitions built in the image of those offered at ancient Olympia, the French aristocrat joyfully declared, "May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure." These stirring words of internationalist ideals aside, the real genius of de Coubertin was his realization that in order to survive, the Olympics would need to harness the power of nationalism and international rivalry. The reconstituted Olympics were plagued with...

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