Revival of the Modern Olympic Games: Pierre de Coubertin's Vision

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November 25th, 1892 marked the Athletic Sports Union’s fiftieth anniversary. On this date, at a French theatre in the town of Sorbonne, Pierre de Coubertin proposed the idea of bringing the Olympic games back. On June 16th, 1894, 2 years later in the same town, it was decided that they would announce the Olympics’ return. Finally, 2 years later in 1896, the first Modern Olympics was held. One of the reasons Pierre de Coubertin wanted to bring the games back as because of the legacy that the games hold (Callebat, 1).
In 1894, de Coubertin wrote that, “The new Olympic Games will be modern, very modern,” and, “There will be no question of wearing pink tunics to run in a cardboard stadium.... No tripods or incense; these beautiful things are dead, …show more content…

In order to celebrate the dignity, strength, and beauty of the athletes during the ancient Olympics, de Coubertin said that the athletes could not be professionals, could not take any type of substance to enhance their performance, and could not be “unsullied by commercialism (Lang, 1).” In a typical Olympic advertisement there would be an image of an athlete with a laurel wreath crown on top of his head. The crowns were placed on the event winner’s head during the time of the ancient Olympics. Behind the image of the athlete would be the Olympic rings. Pierre de Coubertin created the rings in 1913 to symbolize all of the different continents joining together in a harmonized way. Each of the five rings is the same size in order to show equality, and every ring is a different color. The colors of the rings from left to right are blue, yellow, black, green, and red, with a white background. These six colors were chosen because every country that participates in the games has at least one of the six colors in its flag. In the poster there would also be an image of a chariot to symbolize victory and the history of the games (Lang,

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