Pierre de Coubertin — Founder of Modern Olympic Games
1.What were Coubertin's favorite subjects, according to the passage? ... and ...
2.When was the International Olympic Committee founded? On ... ,1894.
3.When did Coubertin resign from the president? In ...
As a child of a noble family,Pierre de Coubertin received a good education and developed a strong interest in literature and history. He refused the military career planned for him by his family, as well as renounced a promising political career in order to serve his people better. Coubertin was convinced that sport was the springboard for moral energy and he defended his idea with rare tenacity. His study of history made him wish the Olympic Games were still being held. He was sure that bringing amateur athletes together would promote friendly relations between the countries. It was this conviction that led him to announce that he wanted to revive the Olympic Games. Although his statement was greeted with little enthusiasm, Coubertin was not discouraged and on 23 June,1894,he founded the International Olympic Committee in a ceremony held at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. Two years later,in 1896,the first Olympic Games of the modern era was held in Athens. On that occasion Coubertin was elected president of the IOC and he remained president until 1925. Due to the 1st World War,Coubertin requested permission to establish the headquarters of the IOC in Lausanne,Switzerland. Coubertin withdrew from the IOC in 1925 to devote himself to his pedagogical work, which he termed his “unfinished symphony”. Coubertin suddenly died of a heart attack on September 2,1937,in a park in Geneva.