Birth of a Vocation
Pierre de Coubertin was born in Paris in 1863. His family originated1 in Normandy where he spent many of his summers in the family Ch?觀teau de Mirville, near Le Havre.
He refused the military career planned for him by his family, as well as renouncing2 a promising political career. By the age of 24 he had already decided the aim of his life: he would help bring back the noble spirit of France by reforming its old-fashioned and unimaginative education system.
Coubertin, whose father was an artist and mother a musician, was raised in cultivated3 and aristocratic4 surroundings. He had always been deeply interested in questions of education. For him, education was the key to the future of society, and he sought the means to make France rise once more after its defeat in the war in 1870.
Sport for Moral Energy
Coubertin was a very active sportsman and practiced the sports of boxing, fencing, horse-riding and rowing. He was convinced that sport was the springboard5 for moral energy and he defended his idea with rare tenacity6.
It was this conviction7 that led him to announce at the age of 31 that he wanted to revive8 the Olympic Games.
He made this announcement in a meeting at the Union of French Societies of Athletic Sports (USFSA), for which he was Secretary General. No one really believed him and his statement was greeted with little enthusiasm.
Revival of the Games
Coubertin, however, was not discouraged and on 23 June, 1894 he founded the International Olympic Committee in a ceremony held at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. Demetrius Vikelas from Greece became the first president of the IOC.
Two years later, in 1896, the first Olympic Games of the modern era were held in Athens. On that occasion Coubertin was elected the second president of the IOC and he remained president until 1925. Due to the 1st World War, Coubertin requested permission to establish the headquarters of the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland, which was a neutral country.
On 10 April, 1915, the acts ensuring the establishment of the international administrative centre and archives of the modern Olympic movement were signed in the Town Hall of Lausanne.
In 1922, the IOC headquarters and the Museum collections were moved to the Villa Mon Repos in Lausanne and stayed there for the next 46 years.
Defining Olympics
Pierre de Coubertin also wanted to be seen as a pedagogue9. All of his projects, including the Games, had the same aim in mind: to make men.
His definition of Olympics had four principles that were far from a simple sports competition:
To be a religion i.e. to “adhere to an ideal of a higher life, to strive for perfection”; to represent an elite10 “whose origins are completely egalitarian11” and at the same time “chivalry12” with its moral qualities; to create a truce13 “a four-yearly festival of the springtime of mankind”; and to glorify beauty by the “involvement of the philosophic arts in the Games”.
It is clear that the concept of the Olympic Games is far from a simple sports competition.
The Unfinished Symphony14
Pierre de Coubertin withdrew from the IOC and the Olympic Movement in 1925 to devote himself to his pedagogical work, which he termed his “unfinished symphony”.
At the age of 69, in 1931, he published his “Olympic Memoirs” in which he emphasized the intellectual and philosophical nature of his enterprise and his wish to “place the role of the IOC, right from the start, very much above that of a simple sports association”.
Pierre de Coubertin suddenly died of a heart attack on Sept. 2, 1937, in a park in Geneva, and thus his “symphony” remained unfinished.
The city of Lausanne had decided to award him honorary citizenship of the city, but he died just prior to the ceremony.
In accordance with Pierre Coubertin’s last wishes, his body was buried in Lausanne and his heart was placed inside a stele15 erected to his memory at Olympia.
Coubertin’s Quotes
1. The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.
2. The Olympic Games are for the world and all nations must be admitted to them.
3. All sports must be treated on the basis of equality.
4. The Olympic Games are the quadrennial16 celebration of the springtime of humanity.
5. The six colors, including the white background, represent the colors of all the world’s flags... this is a true international emblem.
天赋使命
皮埃尔·德·顾拜旦1863年出生于法国巴黎。他的家族起源于诺曼底省，因此他在诺曼底省勒阿佛尔的米维尔城堡度过许多夏天。
他拒绝了家人为他计划的军旅生涯，也放弃了前程似锦的从政之路。24岁时他就确定了终生奋斗的目标：他要通过改革法国古板守旧、缺乏想象力的教育体制，重建法国的贵族精神。
顾拜旦的父亲是艺术家、母亲是音乐家，因此他是在高雅的贵族氛围中长大的。他对教育问题一直倾注了浓厚兴趣。在他看来，教育是未来社会发展的钥匙，于是他开始探索法国1870年战败之后的振兴之路。
体育促进道德
顾拜旦非常热爱体育运动，练过拳击、击剑、马术和划艇。他坚信体育能够促进道德建设，并且不屈不挠地捍卫自己的观点。
正是这一信念促使顾拜旦在31岁时宣布：他要复兴奥林匹克运动会。
他在法国田径运动协会联合会举行的一次会议上宣布了自己的决定，当时他是该组织的秘书长。但是，没有人信以为真，人们对他的倡议反应冷淡。
重振奥林匹克
然而，顾拜旦没有泄气。1894年6月23日，他在巴黎索邦大学的一次典礼上成立了国际奥林匹克委员会。来自希腊的季米特里奥斯·维凯拉斯当选为国际奥委会第一任主席。
两年后，也就是1896年，第一届现代奥林匹克运动会在雅典举行。在这届奥运会上顾拜旦当选为国际奥委会第二任主席，一直连任到1925年。由于第一次世界大战的爆发（1914—1918），顾拜旦征得同意后，把国际奥委会总部（由巴黎）迁到中立国瑞士的洛桑。
1915年4月10日，国际奥委会在洛桑市政厅签署了旨在建立现代奥林匹克运动国际管理中心和奥林匹克博物馆的协议。
1922年，国际奥委会总部和奥林匹克博物馆迁至洛桑蒙荷波别墅，直到46年之后才另移新址。
定义“奥林匹克”
顾拜旦也想成为公众眼中的教育家。因此，他所主持的任何项目，包括奥运会，都有同一个目标：塑造人。
他给奥林匹克下的定义包含了四项原则，这些原则远远超出了体育竞赛范畴。这四项原则是：
像宗教一样虔诚，即“致力于追求更加理想的生活，为完美而奋斗”； 要代表社会精英，确信“所有人完全平等”，同时“每个人的行为应符合道德规范”；创造停战环境，共庆人类四年一度的春天；通过把“哲学艺术渗透到奥运会当中”，讴歌世间的美好。
显而易见，奥林匹克概念已经超越了简单的体育竞赛范畴。
未完成的交响曲
1925年顾拜旦辞去了国际奥委会主席一职，全身心投入到教育工作中——他将这一工作命名为“未完成的交响曲”。
1931年，69岁的顾拜旦出版了《奥林匹克回忆录》。在书中他强调奥林匹克事业的智性和哲学宗旨，表述了他“从一开始就使奥林匹克超越体育组织范畴”的心愿。
1937年9月2日，顾拜旦在日内瓦的一个公园里因心脏病发作猝死，所以他的“交响乐”未能完成。
洛桑市本决定授予顾拜旦“荣誉市民”称号，可惜他在颁奖典礼之前去世了。
遵照顾拜旦的遗愿，他的遗体被安葬在洛桑，而他的心脏则埋在奥林匹亚的奥运会纪念碑基座下(现称“顾拜旦心脏纪念碑”)。
顾拜旦名言
1. 奥运会最重要的不是获胜，而是参与；正如在生活中最重要的事情不是胜利，而是奋斗一样。生活的本质不是征服他人，而是奋斗有方。
2. 奥运会属于全世界，应允许所有民族参与。
3. 所有运动种类都应建立在平等的基石之上。
4. 奥运会是四年一度人类春天的庆典。
5. 六种颜色（奥运会会旗为蓝、黄、黑、绿、红等五种颜色，加上白底就是六种颜色）代表了全世界所有国旗的颜色……这是真正的国际徽章。
1. originate v. 起源
2. renounce v. 自愿放弃
3. cultivated adj. 有教养的
4. aristocratic adj. 贵族气氛的
5. springboard n. 跳板
6. tenacity n. 不屈不挠，顽固
7. conviction n. 坚定的看法，信仰
8. revive v. 恢复，再兴
9. pedagogue n. 教师，教育者
10. elite n. 精华，精锐
11. egalitarian adj. 平等主义的
12. chivalry n. 骑士精神
13. truce n. 休战期，停战期
14. symphony ] n. 交响曲，交响乐
15. stele n. 刻有碑文的石柱，石碑
16. quadrennial adj. 每四年一次的