download - IOA

with its statutes:
- to disseminate all of the work of Pierre de Coubertin, focus on the main lines
of his thought and ensure its distribution throughout the world, in order to contri
bute to the betterment of the human race, and to find solutions to today's pro
blems.
- To promote and support the study of the complete humanism of Pierre de
Coubertin, his pedagogical and social thought, in order to focus particularly on the
moral, civic, cultural and pedagogical lessons which can be learned from it, and to
coordinate the research entrusted to members of the Committee or external ex
perts chosen for their specialist knowledge.
- To contribute to the adoption of rules and measures corresponding to the
teachings from which the Olympic Spirit arises.
- To honour and reward those people, organizations and groups whose beha
viour or activity has best served the ideals of Pierre de Coubertin.
- To collaborate with those national and international organizations whose aim
is to propagate the Olympic Spirit and to conduct research into the heritage of
Pierre de Coubertin.
- To coordinate on an international level the actions of its members in their res
pective countries and of the future Pierre de Coubertin Committees recognized by
it.
II - Pierre de Coubertin: the man
Pierre de Fredy, Baron de Coubertin, was born in Paris on 1st January 1863,
into a noble and wealthy family of Italian descent. Their ancestry goes back to an
original Fredy who served the French king Louis XI, and was given the title in
1471. In 1567, another Fredy acquired the De Coubertin estate near Paris, and
adopted the name his family would keep. Pierre de Coubertin studied in Paris, at
the École Primaire, and later graduated in Political Sciences. He lived in the family
château of Mirville in Normandy, while the rest of his family lived in Paris at 20,
rue Oudinot, the house where he was born and which was the IOC's first operational
centre.
Disillusioned with politics and politicians, and discarding the idea of an easy
military career, which would have been appropriate to his station in life, he decided
after much deliberation to devote himself to the arduous task of educational
reform in his country, spurred on by his revealing experiences of training and studying
in England and North America. Education, teaching and pedagogy were at
this time in his life powerful motors of feverish activity, tirelessly and optimistically
projected on history by his visionary genius. "I have decided, " he said, "to change
my career, in order to link my name with widespread pedagogical reform... m the
most important thing for modern peoples is education... (2) education, which must
be the preface to life... and these thoughts are the result of my observations at various
stages of my travels through the States of Europe and North America, where
I saw great currents of pedagogical reform independent of governmental systems,
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