INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Vikelas, at the Sorbonne congress in 1894, was beyond comparison, is
fully justified in this respect.
I do not think that there is any doubt that no other participant at the
Sorbonne would have been able to achieve what Vikelas achieved as a
vision, but also as a realization, i.e. the revival or re-establishment of
the Olympic Games in Athens, as a means of integrating his small
country in the European family and a new link to Europe.
At the end of his two-year term of office as the President of the
IOC and his resignation as an IOC member in favour of a younger
man (Alexandros Merkatis), Vikelas continued to be involved in
amateur sport sometimes discreetly, at other times more energetically
as in the case of his idea of celebrating mid-Olympic Games. At the
same time, in spite of the weight of time, Vikelas continued to do
great things, in the field of education and social work as a national
benefactor and also as the representative of Greece at major
international events, like the international congress of Orientalists in
1897, or the international congress of Diploma Gymnastics in Brussels
at which he represented the University of Athens, the IOC congress
for the Olympic Games of Paris in 1900, etc.
The post-Olympic period of Vikelas' life and activity in Greece
was of course marked by deeds that benefited the nation, in the field
of education (including the creation of the Association for the
Propagation of Useful Books and the establishment of the
Sevastopoulios School, the organization of the 1st Educational
Congress) or social work (the House for the Blind being the most
striking example).
It is possible, however, that he would not have achieved all these
great things, in addition to his literary and intellectual
accomplishments for so many decades, if he had not been able to rely
on his universality and European influence for the message he
conveyed to his contemporaries and to later generations.
Coubertin was quite right when he wrote in his posthumous
reference to Vikelas that: “he had never for one moment ceased to
place his country's interest above anything else and that he incarnated
Hellenism itself”.
Vikelas was a patriot, but also a citizen of the world. At a
premature time-period he was looking towards European cooperation,
if not unity. A renowned and practical pro-European he recognized the
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