Pierre de Coubertin - Pierre de Coubertin Medal

Educator, born in Paris, France. One of the first French advocates of physical education, he toured the USA and Europe to study educational methods, and visited Greece, where excavators were uncovering the ancient Olympic site. The visit inspired his proposal to revive the Olympic Games, and in 1894 the delegates at an international athletics conference in Paris voted to hold an Olympic competition at Athens in 1896. He became the first president (1896–1925) of the International Olympic Committee.

Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (January 1, 1863 – September 2, 1937), was a French pedagogue and historian best known for being founder of the modern Olympic Games.

Born in Paris into an aristocratic family, the third child of Charles Louis de Frédy and Agathe-Gabrielle de Mirville De Coubertin was inspired by his visits to British and American colleges and universities, and set out to improve his education. A growing international interest in the ancient Olympics, fed by recent archaeological finds at Olympia, De Coubertin devised a plan to revive the Olympic Games. The congress led to the establishing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of which De Coubertin became the general secretary. These Games proved a success, and De Coubertin took over the IOC presidency when Demetrius Vikelas stepped down after the Olympics in his own country.

Despite the initial success, the Olympic Movement faced hard times, as the 1900 (in De Coubertin's own Paris) and 1904 Games were both swallowed by international fairs, and received little attention.

This changed for the better after the 1906 Summer Olympics, and the Olympic Games grew to become the most important sports event. De Coubertin created the modern pentathlon for the 1912 Olympics, and subsequently stepped down from his IOC presidency after the 1924 Olympics in Paris, which proved much more successful than the first attempt in that city in 1900.

De Coubertin remained Honorary President of the IOC until he died in 1937 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Pierre de Coubertin Medal

The Pierre de Coubertin medal (also known as the De Coubertin medal or the True Spirit of Sportsmanship medal) is an award given by the International Olympic Committee to those athletes that demonstrate the spirit of sportsmanship in the Olympic Games.

The Pierre de Coubertin medal is considered by many athletes and spectators to be the highest award that an Olympic athlete can receive, even greater than a gold medal.