Henri and Pierre

The disappointment in Sochi was mounting. Anchorman and reporter talked about the failures. How America had failed, athletes had failed. We didn’t win the medal count. The Winter Olympics were a disaster…

Shaun White fails to medal….

 “If you think we didn’t’ show up yesterday….”

 “Fails to medal in Sochi”

 “U.S.Women Falter in Speed Skating”

 “American men fail to medal in Super Combined”

Yet when you read this story, I hope you agree that these thoughts are, in a word, ridiculous. It is sport and on any given day, anyone can win. The Olympics are the greatest collection of athletes in the world and yet coverage in Sochi showed that winning is everything, and it matters not to be able to utter the phrase, “I am an Olympian.”

What should matter is Citius, Altius, Fortius…..

Henri Didon was born in southeast France on March 17, 1840. The French Dominican completed his theological studies in Rome where he was quite the athlete. Attending school in Grenoble, his superiors organized “Olympic Games” every two years for the students which included sports of the day and introduced pole vault, fencing, discus and chariot races through his years there. Henri won multiple medals competing in these games and his early love for athletics blossomed from these contests and training.  The disciplined Didon became an ordained Priest in 1862.  

A year later on New Year’s Day in 1863, Pierre de Coubertin was born into an aristocratic family in Paris, France; a family tree of nobles, artists, military leaders and associates of Royalty. Pierre, like Henri, grew up an avid sportsman with boxing, fencing, horseback riding, tennis and rowing his favorite sports. He was a leader at his boarding school and finished in the top three of his class. He had several careers to choose from but became an intellectual, writing on subjects like education, literature and sociology.

Meanwhile, Didon’s career took off. He was a fiery orator and earned fans and followers with his impassioned sermons but his modernistic views, especially on marriage being unable to be dissolved earned him a rebuke with the church and his superiors sent him to Corsica for a “time of reflection.” There Didon begin to write a book and left his retreat over seven years to further his studies. He finished his book in 1890 which became a best seller and he accepted the position of Rector of the College of Arcueil outside of Paris. Here, he helped establish his idea that sport is a great education tool.

De Coubertin’s own seven year reflection began in 1880 at the age of 17 where he travelled to England and America to study education and the role of sport in it. His journeys led him to agree with Didon, saying, “Competing for a place on an athletic team developed qualities of character.” He brought his theories and findings back to a French educational system that didn’t buy in. He persisted and gathered several organizations and sports together to lay the groundwork for his vision, a revival of the Olympic Games.

Didon and de Coubertin met in 1891 when he asked Didon to help him organize competitions between Catholic and secular schools. The two became friends and shared a passion for the philosophy that athletics are a moral compass for young men in France. On March 7, 1891, de Coubertin attended a lecture by Didon on the virtues of sport. “You who wish to surpass yourself, fashion your body and spirit to discover the best of yourself, strive always to go one step further that you were aiming for.” Didon concluded his rousing address with the words included on his schools’ banners; “Citius, Fortius, Altius.” (Faster, stronger, higher) De Coubertin never forgot the stirring phrase.  

 While de Coubertin continued to rally support and worked tirelessly for reigniting the Olympic Games, perhaps to offset the sorrow that plagued his personal life. He married Marie in 1895 and had two children. His first born, a son Jacques became mentally disabled when his parents left him in the sun too long as a little child. His daughter suffered emotional disturbances throughout her life, never married nor found peace in her life. De Coubertin and his wife blamed each other and tried to console themselves by raising two nephews but tragedy revisited when both nephews were killed fighting in the beginning of World War I. 

In June 1894, de Coubertin arranged a conference at the Sorbonne inviting international delegates to the idea of an Olympic revival. The idea picked up steam and by the end of the conference, the delegates had voted to reestablish the Olympic Games, beginning in 1896 in the original Olympic home, Athens, Greece. Per his suggestion, a Greek would be the head of the newly formed International Olympic Committee. With the 1900 Olympics scheduled for Paris, de Coubertin was elected head of the IOC in 1896 and held the position for 29 years.

Henri Didon, for his passion in the field and his motivating words, enjoyed a seat at the 1896 Athens Olympiad next to the King of Greece as a guest of de Coubertin and he celebrated the first mass in Olympic history to over 4000 people. On July 29, 1897, Didon addressed the Olympic Congress with a speech entitled, ‘Moral Influence of Athletic Sports.’ In it, he says, “I pay my debt of gratitude, bearing witness to this work and from talking here of a teacher’s power and the moral action that physical exercise outdoors has on our youth, on the formation of their character and personal development.” A few months before the 1990 Paris games, de Coubertin read this sadly in a Paris newspaper:

“When you want to jump three meters, we must aim for five. In life, it is not the shanks that betray you but the lack of ambition that drives you sufficiently.” Fr. Henri Didon.

In 1920, de Coubertin adopted Didon’s phrase that had stuck with him for 29 years. Didon had written, “Citius, Fortius, Altius” with fortius, (stronger) in the middle to stress the moral significance of athletes, de Coubertin swapped the last two, citing a ‘freedom of excess.’ "The attempt to impose on the combatant sport a guideline of obligatory moderation is a utopia.” De Coubertin said announcing the new motto. “Its followers need unrestrained liberty. Therefore one has given them the motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius. Yield therefore to it, you disciples of unnatural belief in moderation: We will continue to put that motto into practice which Father Didon once gave his pupils on their life way, and which became the motto of the Olympic thought: Citius, Altius, Fortius."

Pierre de Coubertin’s voice was projected over speakers at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but he wasn’t there nor had accepted an invitation. He found those particular Olympics ‘confusing.’ After spending a lifetime working for youth and sport and reviving and preserving the Olympics, he had lost all. De Coubertin died September 2, 1937, alone and destitute in a small apartment in Geneva. Per his final instructions, he was buried in Lausanne but his heart, some seven months later, was laid to rest in a green urn in a stele in Olympia, Greece, marking his passing. True to his wishes, his heart was, and still is, forever with the Olympics.

“...the important thing in life is not to triumph but to compete…not victory but combat…not to have vanquished but to have fought well…not winning but taking part…” 
― Pierre de Coubertin