Outside of true Olympic aficionados, few can name the founder of the modern Olympic Games.
The name Baron Pierre de Coubertin, credited as the “father” of the Olympics, is rarely brought up on NBC’s broadcasts, and few news organizations mention him. The International Olympic Committee, of which de Coubertin was the co-founder and its second president, is dedicated to his legacy, but rarely is his name widely mentioned.
George Hirthler wants to change that.
“It seems to me that Pierre de Coubertin had a vision that is still alive and still vibrant in the center and the heart and soul of the Olympic Games,” Hirthler said. “And yet nobody knows his story.”
Hirthler is committed to telling Coubertin’s story, but his introduction to the Olympic founder happened quite by accident. Billy Payne hired Hirthler in 1989 to write Atlanta’s pitch for the 1996 Olympics. He traveled to Switzerland with designer Brad Copeland to visit the IOC’s headquarters and research previous Olympic bids as well as the Games’ history. He quickly stumbled across a photo of the mustachioed Baron Pierre de Coubertin and read his mission to create a movement to unite the world in friendship and peace through sports.
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“I was an anti-war protestor in the 60s and felt like peace was one of the most important things for our world,” Hirthler said. “I still feel that way today, and it’s 30-some years later. I still feel that peace, the message of peace, is central to our future.”
That message helped him win Atlanta the Olympic Games. Atlanta had a number of advantages, including being the home of the Civil Rights Movement, which promoted values central to the Games’ original intent. The city also had plenty of locations to host events, such as the Convention Center, Stone Mountain, the then under-construction Georgia Dome and Lake Lanier. Atlanta had more hotel rooms than any other city competing for the bid, public transport and the busiest airport in the world.
Hirthler’s secret weapons were Ginger Watkins and Linda Stevenson, who organized events that rallied the city behind the Games. Watkins’ and Stevenson’s positions of leadership as women appealed to the IOC because they represented equality — another of Coubertin’s ostensible values (though Coubertin didn’t believe in women competing in sports in public). The Atlanta committee showed the IOC around Atlanta to illustrate the city’s strength as a host and eventually earned the bid.
After Atlanta, Hirthler continued writing bids for Olympic cities, writing one for every Olympics from 2002 to 2018 with two being accepted along with Los Angeles 2028, but his free time was devoted to Coubertin.
He began by writing short articles about Coubertin’s life, but it soon grew. Hirthler joined the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee, met Coubertin’s family and stayed at Coubertin’s childhood home, and started the Pierre de Coubertin Society, which built the statue of Coubertin in Centennial Park. The Society also raised money to translate Olympic writing into English for the first time.
Hirthlin used those translations to write his first book about Coubertin. Published in 2016, “The Idealist” is a historical fiction novel about Coubertin’s life and impact on the world. Oscar-nominated producer Mark Mitten is currently shopping the movie and Hirthler hopes there might be a film before L.A. in 2028. He also produced “The Games in Black and White,” set to be released in October/November, which is the first documentary about the 1996 Olympics.
In July, Hirthler released “Genius of Sport,” a biography of Coubertin, and organized an entire exhibition in Paris to educate people about Coubertin. Hirthler wanted to highlight Coubertin in his home country on the 100th anniversary of Paris last hosting the Olympics and the 130th anniversary of the Games’ founding.
“I’m really intent on making sure that during the Paris Olympic Games that people are aware of what Coubertin achieved, and that these Games do represent a major expression of his colossal legacy, and that he is a forgotten hero, and he needs to be put in the public conversation more frequently,” Hirthler said.
Hirthler plans to write more books about Coubertin and continue to push for the movie version of Coubertin’s life. He also publishes quotes from Coubertin’s writing every day on social media and his website.
Coubertin’s life wasn’t easy — he died penniless and politics, personal tragedy and war often kept him away from his life’s work at the Olympics — but his work has lived on and evolved into the best sporting event in the world. Hirthler feels Coubertin’s mission echoing through every Olympics and wants the man to be remembered for starting it all.
“I would love to see him and his ideas really elevated in the public realm for the true value and the meaning that they have for our times,” Hirthler said. “The Games can be a platform for peace between nations.”
