Before his heart was placed in Olympia and his body was laid to rest in Lausanne, Pierre de Coubertin’s soul belonged to Paris.
Known as the father of modern Olympics, Coubertin, who signed off satisfactorily after witnessing the Games being staged in his home city in 1924, would have loved to see the return of the quadrennial showpiece, now a truly global event, to the French capital with several novelties after a hundred years.
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Paris has to be the undisputed second home of the Olympics as Coubertin held the first Congress at the Sorbonne University here to convey his idea of reviving the Games in 1894. Initially, Paris was considered as the host city for the inaugural Games before Athens got the opportunity and honour to hold it.
The city hosted a second forgettable edition in 1900 before Coubertin made sure that his own place organised it properly again in 1924.
Even though the contribution of Coubertin is not played up now, because of his opposition to women’s participation in sports, it’s only befitting that Paris has some distinguished sites in his memory.
Named after the illustrious sports administrator, Stade Pierre de Coubertin, an indoor multi-sport arena built in 1937, is now the home of the PSG handball team. It will be used as the goalball competition venue in the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
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Besides, there is a playground named Avenue Pierre de Coubertin and the Pierre de Coubertin French Committee in the honour of the great man, who was an educationist and historian as well.
About 200km west of Paris, Normandy too bears some memories of Coubertin in the form of his childhood home – Chateau de Mirville, which finds a place in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Besides being an opportunity to show the neo-modern face of France to the world, the hosting of the 2024 Paris Olympics is a marker of Coubertin’s genius to provide a so variedly divided world a unique platform to be in one place, albeit once in four years.
