The Barmy Baron

And now, back to satire.

NBC broadcast a story last night on Baron Pierre du Coubertin, the silly Frenchman who brought back the Olympic Games in the 1890s. Du Coubertin thought that, with technology advancing rapidly at the end of the nineteenth century and the nations of the world in closer contact with each other, international relations would be improved through sport. The first modern Olympics, in Athens in 1896, encouraged such brotherhood through such noble sports as rope climbing and tug-of-war - and no women were allowed. Du Coubertin was president of the International Olympic Committee from 1894 to 1925, hence he lived to see the 1916 Olympics wiped out by the First World War. Nice work, Baron! Wasn't there supposed to be a truce to stop the war so that the Games could be held, as in ancient times?

Oh yeah, after du Coubertin died, he literally gave his heart to the Olympic cause. His heart was removed from his body and placed in a monument in Greece. Now, I've heard of dissecting frogs, but . . ..