INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

archaeological sites of Olympia and Delphi come again to the world
fore 25 . It was after the undertaking of archaeological excavations at
Delphi by the French in 1981 that the French - German rivalry
“predominated in the thoughts of their representatives” 26 .
Pierre de Coubertin was not unconcerned about the competitive
relations of the two countries. As he wrote: “Germany had dug up all
that was left from Olympia. Why shouldn’t France be in a position to
re-establish the glory?” 27 . It is worthy to mention that Coubertin, when
he started making his effort for the revival of the games, he was
unaware of Germany, a neighbouring country with important sport
unions. This unawareness of his marked the beginning of the “German
question” which would emerge after the first Olympic Congress.
As the associations of Germany, at least officially, had not been
represented in the Congress of Paris, the resolutions of the Congress
had been made known in Germany through press releases.
The Greeks’ concern about the German participation didn’t take
long to be confirmed. The Germans had based their refusal on a series
of accusations. They believed that they had been deliberately
‘forgotten’ by the first International Olympic Congress in Paris,
because at the newspaper “Gil Blas” had been published an article
which mentioned that maybe “on purpose” 28 the German clubs had not
been invited by Pierre de Coubertin to take part.
At the same time they claimed that the programme of the first
International Olympic Games had not given the importance which it
should have done to gymnastics (Turmen), and had been drawn up to
suit English and French conceptions of physical education 29 . Thus the
international Games were at odds with the German spirit of
gymnastics; and so the only Games that ought to be organized were
national German Olympics 30 . And they believed that “since France
has thus taken the Olympics under their wing, Germany, were they to
take part in the Games, would not have been able to cope well and
would not have been able to count on a warm reception in Athens” 31 .
These fears of a possibly lukewarm reception were intensified by a
coolness that had sprung up between the two countries of Greece and
Germany after Greece’s insolvency, and the pressures exerted by
Germany in order for the former to meet its obligations to the latter 32 .
At the end, in German eyes the time remaining was insufficient for
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