Text Box: 21. Baron de Coubertin Text Box: The second President of the IOC, Pierre Fréddy, Baron de Coubertin, joined with the recent Greek athletic history and the revival of the Olympiads, lived for the last years of his life until he died in Geneva. The name of Pierre Fréddy, Baron de Coubertin is joined with the recent Greek athletic history and the revival of the Olympiads. He was born to an aristocratic family, in Paris, France, 1st January 1863 and 2nd September 1937 he went out for his last walk alone, round the “Parc La Grange”, in Geneva by the today Athletic Library. There, he let his psyche fly over the Alpes bringing his heart rest at the Coubertin Monument at the holy soil of Ancient Olympia. He was a profound educator and an active Philhellene. Baron de Coubertin had believed in modern Greece. He had written in a great Paris paper: “…the people that are going to visit Athens during the I Olympiad will comprehend that the ancient Greece is disfigured by a clumsy pedagogical system and that there is the modern Greece that is not at all known. Both of them, the ancient and the modern Greece are closely joined by the bonds of similarity relations”. Pierre Fréddy, Baron de Coubertin revealed the Olympic symbol in 1913. In his words: “these five circles stand for the five regions on Earth that reconcile with Olympism… it is an authentic Olympic symbol”. These Olympic circles represent the five continents and the meeting of the athletes from all around the world. The colors of the Olympic circles have been chosen to represent at least one of the colors of the flags of each country. The five colors are: bleu, yellow, black, green and red and are set upon a white background. Dimitrios Vikelas characterized Pierre Fréddy, Baron de Coubertin as an indefatigable man, energetic, courteous in behavior, with an iron will. The Athenian newspaper of that time “Hestia”, announcing the death of the sporting man Pierre Baron de Coubertin wrote: “Pierre Fréddy, Baron de Coubertin belonged to the distinguished men, who deserve the two high titles, of the philhellene and the benefactor of the humankind”.

Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin
Text Box: “Ouvrez les portes du Temple pour l'accès de tous à la Culture” (1918), Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin