Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympic Games, was born in Paris to an aristocratic family of Italian origins. He was educated at Jesuit school and briefly became a lawyer before taking up a career in educational reform. His travels to England and later to the United States convinced him of the value of sports in building character and in 1894 he achieved his long held goal of reviving the Games. He died in 1937. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
John E. Findling, Kimberly D. Pelle (eds.), Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996), 350-355.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Personal
