It will be a notable absence. According to our information, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, will not take part in the tribute paid on June 23 at the Sorbonne in Paris to the renovator of the Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin. In this Olympic year in the French capital, this event, led by the descendants of the baron, must celebrate the 130th anniversary of the birth of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided on June 23, 1894 under the leadership of the French in the large amphitheater of the prestigious university.
Officially, “AOC” will not attend this ceremony because she will participate, that day, “in an event as part of Olympic Day and the Torch Relay”, according to her entourage.
On June 23, it will be at the foot of the mountains and Mont-Blanc: the Olympic torch is coming to Haute-Savoie and must make a stop in Chamonix. But unofficially, it seems that the controversial figure of the baron, who has become more divisive than ever, pushed the member of the government to decline the invitation. If, in the eyes of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Coubertin is “undeniably a visionary of his time for sport, its place in society and its unifying role in the concert of nations”, this “does not prevent us from being lucid on the dark sides of this historical character, some of whose now well-known positions are clearly reprehensible.”
A man complacent towards the Nazis
In recent weeks, the aristocrat’s racist, colonialist and misogynistic remarks, as well as his complacency towards the Nazi regime during the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, have resurfaced. Published Friday, a book entitled “Pierre de Coubertin, the man who did not invent the Olympic Games” (Éditions du Faubourg) signed by journalist Aymeric Mantoux reveals a letter from the baron addressed six months before his death to the Chancellor of the German Reich Adolf Hitler on March 17, 1937. In this letter, he thanked the Nazi regime for its contribution to its “jubilee year”, namely half a century of promoting sport. This document confirms that the Frenchman did indeed maintain direct relations with the Führer, as some historians have argued in recent decades.
This Tuesday evening, it is the host-journalist Stéphane Bern who will paint, in a documentary broadcast on France 2 at 11:30 p.m. (“Greatness and mysteries of the father of the Olympics”), a more nuanced portrait, evoking, certainly, the dark sides of the inventor of the Olympic rings but also the “brilliant visionary”.
Asked this Tuesday morning, Alexandra de Navacelle, great-great-niece of the creator of the Modern Games and president of the Pierre de Coubertin Family Association, was not aware of the absence of the member of the government on June 23 . “I am completely surprised. Things change almost every week,” she regrets, explaining that she nevertheless received a “positive response” to her invitation. “We are part of a ceremony that goes beyond current challenges to history,” she continues. And to remember that it is very important to “contextualize” the controversial outings of one’s ancestor.
A ceremony where “young people will be in the spotlight”
During the tribute on June 23, “young people will be in the spotlight” with a concert by the Orchestra and Choir of the Universities of Paris. A demonstration of breaking, a new Olympic sport this summer in Paris, is also scheduled.
According to the Pierre de Coubertin Family Association, the president of the IOC, the German Thomas Bach, has “confirmed” his presence at this event and is even due to give a speech.
In France, Pierre de Coubertin, a great defender of sport in schools, has become a troublesome personality at the heights of sporting and political power. At the Organizing Committee for the Paris Olympics, his name is mentioned in dribs and drabs. The French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), for its part, refused to answer our questions on the subject.
Unless there is a change of heart, Head of State Emmanuel Macron will also not attend the tribute at the Sorbonne because “the president’s agenda is very constrained in June” according to the Élysée. An event which remains “under the high patronage of the President of the Republic”.
