(Pierre de Fredy)

Baron Pierre de Coubertin (January 1, 1863-September 2, 1937), born as Pierre de Fredy, was a French pedagogue and historian, but is best known as the founder of the modern Olympic Games. He conceived of an international competition to promote athletics. A growing international interest in the ancient Olympics, fed by recent archaeological finds at Olympia, De Coubertin devised a plan to revive the Olympic Games.

To publicize these plans, he organised an international congress on June 23, 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris. There he proposed to reinstate the ancient Olympic Games. The congress led to the establishing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of which De Coubertin became the general secretary. It was also decided that the first modern Olympics would take place in Athens, Greece. These Games proved a success, and De Coubertin took over the IOC presidency.