A universal meeting of young people from throughout the
world
We all look forward to the first Olympic Games in China next
August. We all look forward to sharing the unique celebration that
China and Beijing will stage for "One World, One Dream".
I should like to pay tribute to the new initiative of
Civilization Magazine in publishing, not only in English
and French, but also for the first time in Chinese, the manuscript
of the "Olympic Manifesto" by Pierre de Coubertin, thus reminding
us what the Olympic Games are all about and disseminating the
Olympic ideals and values of friendship, peace and universality
among the Chinese people and the people from all over the
world.
The following pages will undoubtedly help us to know and
understand even better how the visions and ideas of the young
Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin still remain relevant today. This
book is a tribute to the man who, on the evening of 25 November
1892, launched his idea of reviving the Olympic Games, which the
Greeks had instituted in 776 B.C. and ended in 392 A.D.
On 23 June 1894, in the great amphitheatre of the Sorbonne in
Paris, Pierre de Coubertin succeeded in meeting a global challenge
by gaining the approval of the participants in the International
Congress for the revival of the Olympic Games and the creation of
the International Olympic Committee as well as the organisation of
the first Games in 1896 in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of
Olympism.
I would like once again to congratulate Civilization
Magazine for this?commendable project and an authentic
document of great value, thus illustrating the essence of the
Olympic Games: a universal meeting of young people from throughout
the world, with the same goal and the same enthusiasm.
As Coubertin said: "humanity must draw from the heritage of the
past all the strengths that can be used to build the future.
Olympism is one of those."
By Juan Antonio Samaranch
The International Olympic Committee Honorary President
(Source: Civilization Magazine)