Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, here immortalised on a stamp from Azerbaijan, had the Olympics running through his very veins. The idea of the Olympics came to him in 1889 and he spent the next 5 years bringing it together, involving himself in every level from meeting international luminaries to sketching up the velodrome to trying to find more than one football team.
He was the founding member of the International Olympic committee.
Coubertin came up with the idea of an Olympic oath, as far back as 1906.
He won the gold medal for literature at the 1912 Summer Olympics for his poem 'Ode to Sport'.
He created the Olympic flag in 1914.
'Its not the winning but the taking part' was one of his many catchy quotes... Famous for his unflinching belief that the Olympics were a force for peace and harmony, he later wrote,
"Peace…could be the product only of a better world; a better world could be brought about only by better individuals; and better individuals could be developed only by the give and take, the buffeting and battering, the stress and strain of fierce competition."
The Pierre de Coubertin medal (also known as the Coubertin medal or the True Spirit of Sportsmanship medal) is an award given by the International Olympic Committee to those athletes that demonstrate sportsmanship in the Olympic Games. It is considered by many to be the highest award that an Olympic athlete can receive.
Opening ceremonies, parades, fireworks and hugely inflated infrastructure costs are all part of the Baron's legacy.
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