The Biographies of All IOC

Transcription

The Biographies of All IOC-M embers
„Under the supreme authority o f the International Olym
pic Committee, the Olympic Movement encompasses or
ganisations, athletes and other persons who agree to be
guided by the Olympic Charter” is written in Paragraph
1, Chapter 1 of the Olympic Charter.1
Who are today the members of this International Olym
pic Committee and how many members can be counted
since the Founding of the IOC during the Congress in
Paris in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin? What do we know
about their biographies?
Since 1987, the IOC published biographies of its mem
bers, starting with its foundation until 1987;2 and since
then regularly updates about the biographies of its cur
rent members.3
These publications, especially those from 1987, were far
from complete and even contained big gaps. The current
publications about the members are more or less bio
graphic statistics. About several of the more prominent
and leading members, like Pierre de Coubertin, complete
libraries have been published. The life of others, like
for instance Count Henri de Baillet-Latour, have been
researched for a PhD thesis or dissertation.4 And in this
Journal, we also published extensive and critical articles
about some IOC members, like for instance General von
Reichenau.5
Already over a dozen years ago, our founding presi
dent Ian Buchanan, together with the grand old
man of Olympic historical publications Wolf Lyberg, started a book with the complete biographies
of all IOC members. They received the assistance of
many ISOH members for their research. The manu
script is available; but the book was never published.
Wolf Lyberg has sent us the manuscript. However, in the
manuscript from Buchanan/Lyberg, the IOC members
are arranged alphabetically according to the names of the
NOC’s. We think that they should be arranged in the or
der of their nomination into the IOC. We will use the list
in the second volume of the IOC publication from 1994:
“ 1894-1994 - The International Olympic Committee One Hundred Years” as our standard.6 In this volume,
one can also find the biographies of “The members of
the First International Olympic Committee.7 We intend
to use these rather extensive texts instead of those from
Buchanan/Lyberg. The biographies collected by Bucha
nan/Lyberg will be clarified with footnotes about their
origin.
It is our intention to make the publications in such a way
that the biographies can eventually be published in book
form.
Karl Lennartz
Tony Bijkerk
Stephan Wassong
Notes
1
IOC (ed.) Olympic Charter, Lausanne 2007, p. 13.
2
IOC (ed.), Biographies, 2 vol, Lausanne 1987, before 1985.
3
M ost recently IOC (ed.), Biographies, Lausanne 2008.
4
CARPENTIER, Florence, Le Com ité International Olympique en
crisis. La présidence de Henri de Baillet-Latour 1925-1940, Paris
2004.
5
LENNARTZ, Karl, „Walter von Reichenau. Sportsman, IOCMember, War Crim inal“, in: Journal o f Olympic History
14(2006)1, p. 27-41.
6
LENNARTZ, Karl / CHOLLEY, Patrice, „List o f IOC members
(1894-1994)”, p. 215-228.
7
KRAYER, Alber / M Ü LLER, Norbert, p. 269-280.
The International Olympic Committee and some members of the Organizing COmmittee of the 1st Olympiad 1986 in Athens at their meeting
on April 10. Left to right: Georgios Streit, Kokides, Guth, Vikelas, Kemény, Coubertin, Boutowsky, Gebhardt, Balck Sitting: Prince George,
Crown-Prince Konstantin, Princ. ISOH Archive
J o u r n a l o f O ly m p ic H i s t o r y 1 7 ( M a r c h 2 0 0 9 ) N u m b e r 1
47
JoH SPECIAL: The biographies of all IOC-Members
] is o h ]
1. B a r o n P i e r r e de C o u b e r t i n
Founder of the Olympic Movement and restorer of the modern
Olympic Games.
Born: 1.1.1863 in Paris Died: 2.9.1937 in Geneva
IOC member: No. 1
Founding member: 24 June 1894 Resigned: 28 May 1925
Secretary General IOC:
24.06.1894 - 10.04.1896
President IOC:
10.04.1896-28.05.1925
From 1 9 1 6 - 1919 Godefroy de Blonay (Switzerland) acted as
interim President.
Honorary President of the Olympic Games:
28.05.1925-02.09.1937
Attendance at Sessions
Present: 21 Absent: 1
Although not officially a member o f the Executive Board, he
attended three meetings in an ex officio capacity.
Picture: p. 49
Situated in the valley of Chevreuse, close to Paris, the
Coubertin castle was named after the Coubertin family,
whose history dates back to the 15th century.
Pierre de Coubertin inherited his love of art from his father,
Charles-Louis, a respected church painter. Coubertin was
also very attached to the native region of his mother,
Agathe-Marie. He used to spend several weeks each year
in Mirville, their property in the country, where he met
friends and developed his ideas. He studied humanism at
the Jesuit Collège, St. Ignace, in Paris. After passing his
baccalauréat ( 1880), and despite a bourgeois career plan,
he studied politics, history, sociology and education and
left the Ecole des Sciences Politiques [School of politi
cal science] as a free spirit and with top exam results.
Thanks to the experience he had acquired during his
numerous study trips (to England from 1883 onwards
and, for the first time, to North America in 1889), he soon
became financially independent. He had exceptional
journalistic talent and devoted himself to much-needed
reforms of the education system in the French Republic.
He was enthusiastic about the Anglo-Saxon sporting edu
cation he had discovered through literature and during
his travels.
Thomas Arnold, who died in 1842 after being Headmaster
of Rugby School, was a special role model for Coubertin,
who was only able to discover him through his literature
which he found so fascinating.
For him, sport, which was considered as a capital and
integral part of the education of young British people,
could give the French youth the new impetus it needed
after the defeat in 1870/71.
Passionate about sport (he practised horse riding, fencing,
boxing, rowing and tennis), Coubertin then started to
create pupils’ sports associations, later becoming secre
tary general of the National Federation of Sport Schools
(USFSA) which he had instigated. Then he organised
varied sports schools, following the English example.
He aimed to revitalise the youth of France by reducing
48
overloading of the mind and increasing physical activ
ity. Self-responsibility in sport would enable pupils to
become democratically-aware citizens.
The idea of international Olympic Games was bom
from Coubertin’s enthusiasm for the legacy of Greece,
the German archaeological excavations in Olympia
(1875-81), the sports events called “olympic”, and
especially the Olympic Games of Much Wenlock in
England.
Railway and shipping lines, the invention of the tele
graph, sports writings and international commercial
exchanges did the rest.
On the one hand, he wanted to promote sport rapidly
throughout France, and on the other hand, he wanted to
put into practice peoples’ understanding and serve peace
in the world thanks to regularly-held international sport
events bringing together the youth of the world. For this,
he received the support of a man who was a father-figure
to him, Jules Simon, the president of the USFA and also
one of the protagonists of the Peace Bureau in Bern in
1889.
In order to eliminate the national barriers that prevented
international sporting exchanges, Coubertin, as secretary
general of the UFSA, organised an international congress
for the harmonisation of the conditions of amateurism in
Paris in June 1894.
The restoration of the Olympic Games in the context of
the modem era, initially put at the end of the agenda,
actually became the centre point of the discussions. On
23 June 1894, Coubertin founded the IOC according to
a precise development plan and the first Olympic Games
were held in Athens in 1896. As representative of the host
nation, the Greek, D. Vikela became the first president of
the IOC, Coubertin accomplishing the construction work
as secretary general.
In 1896, Coubertin took over the presidency as represen
tative of the host country of the second Olympic Games
which took place in Paris in 1900. He was re-elected
several times until he stepped down in 1925. His direc
torship, albeit a somewhat domineering one, was very
successful, at least until the end of the First World War.
Then he had to adapt to new sports structures world
wide. In any case, few of the IOC members had been
able to follow his objectives concerning sports education
and his philosophy of Olympism. Coubertin had already
published his Notes on Public Education in 1901, which
were very complex presentations of reforms in teach
ing. Specific ideas on the education of adolescents would
follow, with the trilogy on youth education in the twen
tieth century.
Apart from his presentations on the education of the body
(1906), he also gave importance to intellectual education
and the edification of the mind (1915). In 1920, he sum
marised in Pédagogie sportive [Sports Education] his
general concept on this subject.
Coubertin tried to put his educational ideas into practice,
but he was obliged to leave them at the modelling stage.
J o u r n a l o f O l y m p ic H i s t o r y 1 7 ( M a r c h 2 0 0 9 ) N u m b e r 1
References
IOC (Ed.) Coubertin, Pierre de. Olympic M em oirs, Lausanne 1997.
Carl-Diem -Institut (Ed., 1967), P ierre de Coubertin. The O lym pic Idea,
S chorndorf 1967.
COU BERTIN, Pierre de, E inundzwanzig Jahre Sportkam pagne (18871908), Ratingen/K astellaun/Düsseldorf 1974.
M Ü LLER, N orbert (Ed.), Pierre de Coubertin. Textes choisis, vol.
1: RIOUX, G.(Ed.), Révélation-, vol 2: M Ü LLER , N orbert (Ed.),
Olympisme-, vol 3, 1986.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin ISOH Archive
In 1906, he founded the Société de Sports Populaires
[Society of Popular Sports] thanks to the mass of French
wage-eamers. This society, thanks to the propagation of
a series of sports tests, popularised the idea of the citizen
healthy in mind and body (as stated by Débrouillard).
To this were added campaigns for communal sporting
installations as a human necessity.
After moving the IOC headquarters to Lausanne in 1915,
he moved there with his family in 1919 and founded
there in 1917 an Olympic institution as a model com
munal sports centre for the use of everyone, based on the
example of Greek gymnasiums. It was designed mainly
for the working classes who could exercise free of charge
for the benefit of their health and education. Coubertin’s
requirement of a special university for the working
classes remained blocked at the stage of a training school
for the people.
Another initiative, the founding by Coubertin of the
Union Pédagogique Universelle [Universal Education
Union], allowed for the propagation of a new form of
general culture, encompassing culture in the widest sense
of the term. For Coubertin, an interest in history was a
necessary condition for all other types of knowledge, a
fact which he underlined in 1925/26 with the publication
of l ’Histoire Universelle [Universal History] in four
volumes.
Having also initiated in 1926 an international education
bureau in Lausanne, Coubertin further spread his edu
cational and sporting ideas with the Charte de la Réforme
du Sport [Sports reformation charter] in 1930. Coubertin
had put down for posterity his ideas, plans and visions in
1100 reviews and newspaper articles, some 50 brochures
and 34 books- in total roughly 14,000 printed pages. In
1953, he gave a remarkable speech on the “philosophical
foundations of modem Olympism”. Old and troubled by
the Nazi propaganda at the 1936 Berlin Games, Coubertin
stmggledto let it go. He died in Geneva in 1937 after having
M ÜLLER, N orbert / SCHANTZ, Otto (ed.), P ratique sportive. Zürich,
H ildesheim , N ew York.
M acALOO N, John J . , This Great Symbol. Pierre de Coubertin a n d the
O rigins o f the M odern Olympic Games, Chicago/London 1981.
M ÜLLER, N orbert (Ed.), Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937). Olympism.
Selected Writings, Lausanne 2000.
M ÜLLER, N orbert / SCHANTZ, Otto, B ibliographie Pierre de
C oubertin, Lausanne 1991.
M ÜLLER, N orbert (Ed.,), Coubertin a nd Olympism. Questions fo r the
Future, Niedem hausen/Strasbourg/Sydney 1998.
2. F e lix E r n e s t C a l l o t
Born: 15 May 1840, Paris Died: 29 December 1912, Paris
IOC member: No. 2
Founding member: 23 June 1894 Died: 29 December 1912
IOC Treasurer (1894-1908)
Picture: p. 50
Callot was President of the Union of Gymnastic Societies
of France in 1879-1880 and a member of the Committee
for the Propagation of Physical Excercise in Education
from 1888. This latter organization had been founded by
Coubertin and their acquaintance must date from at least
1888, although, in all probability, they first met some
years earlier. Callot shared Coubertin’s enthusiasms
and was an active member of the small group who laid
the preliminary Plans for the founding of the IOC. He
was the first Treasurer of the IOC (1894-1908) and alter
handing over his duties to Baron Godefroy de Blonay in
1908, he headed the Commission for the Preparation of
the Congress of NOCs in 1911. The Congress was sched
uled to be held in 1914 to mark the 20th Anniversay of
49
given his life and fortune for his philanthropic plans.
The history books, which above all remember him as an
Olympian, should instead recall the educational reformer
that he was.
His wife Marie (née Rothan) died in 1963 at the age of
101. Their son Jacques and daughter Renée died in 1952
and 1968 respectively, leaving no heirs.
Norbert Müller
(Statistics from Buchanan/Lyberg)
the revival of the Olympic Games but Callot died before
his work was completed. A respected academic, he was
well known for his translation of Greek tragedies into
French verse.
Buchanan/Lyberg
3. D e m e tr io s V i k e l a s
Born: 15 February 1835, Ermoupolis, Syros, Cyclades Islands
Died: 7 July 1908, Athens
IOC member: No. 3
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: 14 June 1899
IOC President: 1894-1896.
Picture: p. 50
Demetrios Vikelas ISOH Archive
Alexei Dimitrievich de Boutowski ISOH Archive
50
The first IOC President was born in the Greed Islands where
his parents had settled during the War of Independence.
Around 1839 his mother returned to Taganrog and Vikelas
accompanied his father to Constantinople where, at the
age of seven, he enrolled at the Ecole Française. At the
age of 14 he moved to Odessa on the Black Sea where his
father had started a business but three years later, when
the firm went bankrupt, he moved to London where he
joined his uncles’ grain trading business. After working
all day in their offices he studied at University College,
University of London at night, his chosen course being
botany which was the only subject taught in the even
ings.
In 1866 he married Kalliopi Jeralopoulou, the daughter
of a prosperous member of the Greek community in
London and having already been made a full partner in
his uncles’ business in 1857 he was now a wealthy man.
In 1876 his uncles closed their London office and, having
lived in London for 25 years (1852-1877), he returned
with them to Greece where they reopened their offices.
Vikelas stayed in Athens for just one year before moving
to Paris where his wife,who was suffering from a chronic
mental illness, was cared for until her death in 1894.
The years in Paris were the most productive in his literary
career. Be translated Shakespeare’s works into modem
Greek and one of his novels was translated into eleven
languages.
His involvement with the Olympic movement came
about purely by chance. The initial invitation to attend
the Sorbonne Congress went to the President of the
Panhellenic Gymnastic Society, Joannis Fokianos, who,
being unable to attend himself, suggested Vikelas. He
played an active roll in the Congress and after Athens had
been confirmed as the site of the 1896 Games Vikelas was
appointed President of the IOC in recognition of the rule
that the President must come from the post country. Vikelas
proved to be an able and enthusiastic President and it is
mainly due to him that the 1896 Games were staged at all.
(GUWUS) where wrote books on such diverse subjects
as music, hygiene and handwriting. In 1892 he undertook
an extensive tour of gymnastic and fencing Institutes in
Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and France which
resulted in the publication of a well received work Sport
in France.
During his travels he had established contact with
Coubertin and was invited to the Sorbonne Congress of
1894. In 1896 he undertook a second extensive trip on
behalf of GUWUS, visiting Austria, Italy and Greece and
in 1897 he was promoted to the rank of General.
Aided by A.W. Lebedev, he made great efforts to promote
the cause of Olympism in Russia but met with little
success. Within a year of his appointment he wrote (19
February 1895) to Coubertin advising him ‘that there is
still a good deal of indifference to the cause of physi
cal education generally here in Russia’. In spite of deter
mined efforts, he was unable to persuade any Russians
to take part in the 1896 Games and after only two eques
trians and one rifleman took part in the 1900 Games he
resigned from the IOC in frustration and disappointment.
He did, however, attend the Congresses of 1905 and 1910
but as a delegate of the GUWUS and not as a member of
the IOC.
Buchanan/Lyberg
References
References
LINARDOS, Petros. D. Vikelas. From the Vision to the R eality, Athens
2002 .
BOUTOW SKI, Aleksey D im itrievic de, “Athen im Frühling 1896”, in:
Russische R undschau (1896) 33p., [Tranlation]
MO RBACH, Andreas, D im itrios Vikélas. P atriotischer Literat
und Kosmopolit. L eben und Wirken des ersten P räsidenten des
Internationalen Olympischen Kom itees, Diss. W ürzburg 1998.
BORGERS, Walter, „Aleksey Dimitrivic de Boutowski”, in:
LENNARTZ, Karl, E rläuterungen zum N achdruck des Offiziellen
Berichtes, Kassel 1996, S. 61.
KRAYER, Albert, „Dimitrios Vikelas“, in: LENNARTZ, Karl,
Erläuterungen zum N achdruck des Offiziellen Berichtes, Kassel 1996,
S. 61.
N.N., Alexei Butovski“, Olym pic Panoram a 1(1996),p. 19-20.
YPOND, David, „Dem etrios Vikelas: First President o f the ioc“, in:
Stadion 14(1988)1, S. 85-101.
5. V i k t o r G u s t a f B a l c k
Born: 25 April 1844, Karlskrona
Died: 31 May 1928, Stockholm
4. General Alexei Dimitrievich d e B o u t o w s k i
IOC member: No. 5
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: 31 October 1920
Born: 9 June 1838, Pyatigoritsy Village, Poltava, Ukraine
Died: 25 February 1917, St. Petersburg
IOC member: No. 4
Picture: p. 53
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: December 1900
Picture: p. 50
The son of the owner of a small farm in the Ukraine, he
was encouraged in his studies by his father and having
mastered the German, English and French languages at
the University in Charkov, he embarked on a military
career. He attended the Officer School in Poltava and the
Engineers’Academy and for 14 years (1857-1871) he was
an instructor at the St. Petersburg Military Gymnasium
Known as ‘The father of Swedish sport’ he fully deserved
the esteem in which he was held. After spending some
time at sea as a young man, he entered the Karlberg
Military Academy in 1861 and was commissioned into
the army five years later and finally retired with the rank
of Brigadier-General. During his military career, Balck
founded many sports Clubs particularly those devoted to
gymnastics and in 1880 he led a group of Swedish gym
nasts an a tour of England, Belgium and Denmark. He
was the Leader for many years of the Gymnastic Central
Institute, which had been founded by the legendary Per
51
\
Having been rebuffed by influential Greeks, Coubertin
suddenly showed a lack of interest and enthusiasm for
the 1896 Games. In January 1895 he submitted his resig
nation from the IOC, which Vikelas declined to accept,
many letters from Vikelas went unanswered, pleas for
help with the administration of the Games were ignored
and Coubertin finally arrived in Athens only twelve days
before the Games began. His only excuse for doing vir
tually nothing to help with the preparations for the First
Modern Olympic Games was that he had been preoccu
pied with writing a book on French history and with the
arrangements for his forthcoming marriage!
On the successful conclusion of the 1896 Games, Vikelas
handed over the IOC Presidency to Coubertin but
remained an IOC member until June 1899. He continued
to champion the cause of the Intercalated Games of 1906
and attended the 1905 IOC Congress in Brussels as a del
egate of the University of Athens.
Vikelas is sometimes seen as a mere figurehead but his
contribution to the Olympic movement was immense and
he did more than any man to ensure the success of the
1896 Games. Without this success and without Vikelas
the Olympic movement would, in all probability, have
died an early death.
Buchanan/Lyberg
Henrik Ling. He was also a winter Sports enthusiast found
ing the Stockholm Skating Club in 1883 and in 1892 he
helped to found the International Skating Union of which
he served as President from 1893 to 1925. Additionally,
he was the founding President the first Swedish Olympic
Committee in 1905 which was the forerunner of the more
permanent NOC founded in 1913.
He tried to enlist Coubertin’s support for an Olympic
Winter Games but as the Baron showed no interest, Balck
supported and helped to organize the Nordic Games. The
first Nordic Games were held in 1901 and, thereafter,
Balck defended his brainchild against the rival Olympic
Winter Games but ultimately lost the long battle.
With Stockholm having secured the 1912 Games, he
expressed some forceful views regarding the events
that would make up the programme and although he
didn’t always get his own way he did, as President of
the Organising Committee, ensure that the Games were
superbly conducted.
His grand-daughter, Christine St. Vincent de Suarez,
married Sir Harry Llewellyn the British gold medallist in
show jumping at the 1952 Olympic Games.
Buchanan/Lyberg
References
KRAYER, Albert, “Viktor G ustaf Balck”, in: LENNARTZ, Karl,
E rläuterungen zum N achdruck des Offiziellen B erichtes, Kassel 1996,
S. 54-55.
N.N. Balck, Viktor G u s ta f4, in: Nordisk Familjeboks. Sportlexikon, Bd.
1, Stockholm 1938, p. 591-595.
A widely acclaimed academic and a prolific author, he
was a prominent member of the American Academy of
Arts and Letters and his best known work was the four
volume Napoleon Bonaparte, A History.
When Coubertin visited America in 1889 he met Sloane
for the first time and a close and long standing friend
ship began. To Sloane must go the credit for planting and
fostering the seeds of Olympism in the United States. In
1894 he founded and was the first President of a small
committee which was the forerunner of the USOC and
the same year he became a founding member of the IOC.
Two years later he was instrumental in persuading ath
letes from Princeton University to take part in the first
Games in 1896.
Understandably, Coubertin had the highest regard for
Sloane and during the IOC Session in Paris in 1901 he
proposed Sloane for the IOC Presidency but the honour
was declined.
After being taken ill in 1921, Sloane gave up most of his
appointments and in April 1924 he wrote to Coubertin
resigning from the IOC. His resignation was officially
accepted in November of that year. In recognition of his
outstanding work for the Olympic movement the USOC
presented the IOC with a bust of Sloane and this now
stands in Château de Vidy.
Buchanan/Lyberg
References
LUCAS, John, „Professor William M illigan Sloane. Father o f the
United States Olympic Com m ittee“, in: LUH, Andreas / Beckers,
Edgar (Hg.), Umbruch un d K ontinuität im Sport, F estschrift fü r H orst
Überhorst, Bochum 1991, S. 231-242
6. W illia m M illig a n S l o a n e
7 . J ir i S t a n i s l a v G u t h (later Guth-Jarkovsky)
Born: 12 November 1850, Richmond, Ohio
Died: 11 September 1928, Bay Head, New Jersey
Born: 23 January 1861, He rmanuv Mëstec, Bohemia
IOC member: No. 6
Died: 8 January 1943, Nâchod
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: April 1924
IOC member: No. 7
Founder member: 23 June 1894. Died: 8 January 1943.
Mem ber in Bohemia (1894-1912): Austria (Czech Olympic
Picture: p. 53
Committee)
1912-1918;
Czechoslovakia
(1918-1939),
Bohemia-Moravia (1939-1943).
The pioneer of the Olympic movement in America and a
founding member of the IOC. The son of a pastor of modest
means, Sloane graduated from Columbia University in
1868 and then sperrt four years as a teacher before going
to Europe as the private secretary to George Bancroft, the
US Minister to Germany. While in Germany he studied at
the Lhiiversities of Berlin and Leipzig receiving a Ph.D.
from the latter in 1876. On his return to America he was
assistant professor of Latin at Princeton until 1883 and
then professor of history until 1896 when he accepted
a similar post at Columbia University. He remained at
Columbia for the rest of his academic career but in 1912-13
he was an exchange professor in Berlin and Munich
when he made a lecture tour of some 40 German cities.
52
IOC Secretary (1919-1923 ) Doyen of the IOC (1925-1943)
Present: 31. Absent: 5.
Executive Board member: No. 2
Elected member:
06.06.1921
Resigned:
11.07.1924
Attendance at meetings
Picture: p. 53
The son of a government clerk, he attended the Rychnov
High School and then continued his studies at the KarlsUniversität in Prague before spending three years at the
University of Geneva. Having qualified as a teacher,
j ISOH j
he became tutor to Prince Schaumberg-Lippe firstly in
Nachod and then in Geneva after which he held a number
of teaching appointments before serving as Head of
Protocol to the first President of Czechoslovakia from
1919 to 1925.
He first met Coubertin when he visited Paris in 1891 to
study the French educational system and was invited to
attend the 1894 Sorbonne Congress but for reasons of
expense and teaching commitments at home, Guth was
unable to travel to Paris. However, Coubertin listed him
as a founding member and he was to prove a loyal ally.
Guth remained a member of the IOC for almost 49 years
but as a result of the chaotic political situation in Central
Europe his affiliations were varied and complicated. In
1899 he founded the Bohemian Olympic Committee
which became known as the Austrian-Czech Olympic
Committee in 1912. In October 1916, this Committee
was dissolved under political pressure and Guth was
obliged to issue a statement that he had ‘voluntarily
given up his membership of the IOC’. However, as Guth
never advised Lausanne of his ‘decision5, his resignation
must be considered as purely notional. With the break
up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I
an independent Czechoslovakian State was established
in 1918 and Guth acted quickly, re-establishing a Czech
Olympic Committee by December of that year. After
all the turmoil, things ran smoothly for the next twenty
years but at the 1939 Session in London political matters
were again to the fore. Following the incorporation of
Czechoslovakia into the German State, Guth-Jarkovsky
could not, in theory, continue to represent Czechoslovakia
but the IOC were anxious that he should remain a
member and obtained the approval of the German gov
ernment that Guth-Jarkovsky should become the member
for Bohemia-Moravia. In that capacity he remained an
IOC member until his death four years later. Although
the titles of his national affiliations frequently changed
he was essentially an IOC member for the Czech Lands whatever they may have been called at the time.
He served as Secretary General of the IOC (1919-1923)
and was appointed a member of the first IOC Executive
Committee in 1921 but in 1924 he asked to be replaced in
order to concentrate an organizing the 1925 IOC Session
in Prague. He did, however, remain an IOC member and
was the doyen from 1925 until his death in 1943. He
attended every Olympic Games from 1896 to 1936, with
the exception of 1932.
During his early years with the IOC, Guth was target of
a constant attack from the Austrian member, Prince Solms
Braunfels, who sought to have him removed from the
Committee on the grounds that he represented a territory
that was no more than a province of Austria.
Abroad he was best known for his Olympic work but at
home he was known mainly for his work in the field of
literature. He was a member of the Academy of Arts and
Sciences, wrote more than twenty books on a variety
of subjects and translated the works of many famous
IN TERNA TION A L SO CIETY O F
OLYMPIC HISTORIANS
Viktor Gustaf Balck ISOH Archive
William Milligan Sloane ISOH Archive
Ferenc Kémeny ISOH Archive
53
authors. Born Guth, he took the name Guth-Jarkovskÿ
in 1920 and he sometimes wrote under the pseudonym,
Stansilav Jarkovsky.
Buchanan/Lyberg
One of the original members of the IOC and in 1895 the
founder of the Hungarian Preparation Committee for the
Olympic Games, the forerunner of the NOC. He served
as Secretary General of the NOC until 1907 and resigned
from the IOC that year. His resignation was prompted
by the attack mounted against him by the aristocratic
was a member of the jury for athletics and gymnastics
and in 1904 he joined Willibald Gebhardt (Germany) as
an official IOC delegate at the St.Louis Games. Such was
his love for the Olympic Movement that, even after he
had resigned from the IOC, he attended the 1908 Games
in London where he chose to remain anonymous rather
than embarrass his former colleagues.
Schooling in Budapest was followed by further studies
in Stuttgart where he obtained a teaching diploma in
mathematics and physics before moving to Paris in 1884
to improve his knowledge of French. During his year
in France he met Coubertin for the first time and from
their common interests a life-long friendship developed.
On his return to Hungary, Kemény began his career as a
schoolteacher and devoted much of his time in promot
ing the Olympic concept. His success in making Hungary
the most enthusiastic Olympic nation in Europe further
strengthened his relationship with Coubertin.
After leaving the IOC he devoted his time to pedagogi
cal studies and in 1934 he edited The Encyclopedia o f
Pedagogy. International recognition of his achievements
came early but Hungary was slow to acknowledge his
immense contribution to Sport. In more recent times this
omission has been rectified and at Eger, where he taught
for many years, a Sports hall is named after him and in
June 1997 a statue was erected in his honour and there
is also a statue at the Hungarian University of Physical
Education in Budapest.
The precise circumstances of his death during World War
II have long been shrouded in mystery but his son has
confirmed that Kemény and his wife both committed
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References
GUTH, Jiri, „Die olympischen Spiele in A then 1896“, in: Zeitschrift fü r
das österreichische Gymnasium 11(1896), S. 961-975.
GUTH-Jarkovskÿ, Jirrl, D erniers mémoires olym piques, 1938, 62 p.,
57 p. [manuscript].
Kössl, Jiri, “Jiri Guth”, in: LENNARTZ, Karl, E rläuterungen zum
N achdruck des Offiziellen Berichtes, K assel 1996, S. 59-60.
8. F e r e n c K e m é n y
Born: 17 July 1860, Nagybecskerek (nowZrenjanin, Yugoslavia)
Died: 21 November 1944, Budapest
IOC member: No. 8
Founder member: 23 June 1894. Resigned: 23 May 1907.
Picture: p. 53
fa H flip ! V\o 1o r<\rar\
VV 1 1 A / AV^JLt LJL1C4.L 1JLV i C L V l W A i
ca^i o1
LULA- O U V ^ l d l
status necessary to represent Hungary on the IOC.
Although he was not present at the historic meeting in
Paris in 1894 he attended the 2nd. IOC Session at Athens
in 1896 where he expressed some forceful views on the
matter of absent members. As a result of his remarks, a
motion was passed on 4 April that those members ‘who
have not sent an Annual Report to the President or who
were not present at the Games - without an acceptable
reason - or who had not sent a representative to the
Games’ should be declared demissionaire. Even this
did not satisfy Kemény and six days later (10 April) he
proposed that those IOC members who did not satisfy
the above criteria should be expelled. Although this
second motion was defeated it is a clear indication of the
concern, even at this early stage, of the lack of interest
shown by many of Coubertin’s original appointees. On
a less controversial note, Kemény submitted a bid for
Budapest to kost the 1908 Games but this bid, like all
those made by Budapest in the future (1920; 1936; 1960),
was unsuccessful.
Prior to his resignation, Kemény was a dedicated sup
porter of Olympism. In 1896 he made the inaugural
Speech at the unveiling of the monument to Georges
Averoff and, together with Coubertin and Vikelas, he was
decorated by the King of Greece. In 1896 and 1900 he
54
.
Buchanan/Lyberg
References
KEMÉNY, Ferenc,“Die Bedeutung der olympischen Spiele für die kör
perliche Erziehung der Jugend“, in: Zeitschrift für das R ealschulenw esen
22(1996),S. 1-23.
VARGA, Laszlo, K em ény Ferenc a korszerü iskolâért és az olimpiâért,
Budapest 1989, 57 p.,
KRAYER, Albert, „Ferenc K em eny“, in: LENNARTZ, Karl,
E rläuterungen zum N achdruck des Offiziellen Berichtes, Kassel 1996,
S. 60-61.
9. LORD A m p t h i l l , Arthur Oliver Villiers Russell
Born: 19 February 1869, Palazzo Chigi, Rome, Italy
Died: 7 July 1935, London IOC member: No. 9
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: March 1897
Picture: p. 55
The son of the British Ambassador to Germany he was
born in Italy where his father was on special assignment.
He returned to England for schooling and succeeded to
the title on death of his father in 1884. As a schoolboy, he
was an outstanding oarsman at Eton where he first met
Coubertin during his visit to the College at Whitsun in
1888 with a sports team from the Monge School. After
Eton, Lord Ampthill went up to New College, Oxford
where he rowed for the University in the annual boat race
against Cambridge for three years (1889-91) and in his
first year another future IOC member, Theodore Cook,
was also in the Oxford boat. He also enjoyed success at
the Henley Regatta, winning the Silver Goblets with Guy
Nickalls in 1890 and 1891 and he was a member of the
Leander eight which won the Grand Challenge Cup in
1891.
Together with Charles Herbert, he was one of two Britons
appointed as ‘founder members’ of the IOC and at the
age of 25 he is the youngest-ever British member. His
invitation to join the IOC was evidently a last minute
thought on the part of Coubertin as Ampthill’s name
is the only one of the founding members not to appear
on the programme for Sorbonne Congress of 1894. No
doubt Coubertin felt that he needed someone with more
impressive social credentials than Charles Herbert to rep
resent Great Britain. Although he agreed to lend his name
to Coubertin’s Olympic project, Ampthill did not attend
the Sorbonne Congress or the Athens Games of 1896 and
he resigned from the IOC four months before the 1897
Congress in Le Havre.
In 1894 he married Lady Margaret, a daughter of the
Earl of Beauchamp, and alter serving as private sec
retary to the Secretary of State of the Colonies he was
appointed Governor-General of Madras in 1900. He
served briefly as Governor-General of India during Lord
Curzon’s absence and he returned home in 1906. Like
many influential persons in British Sport at the time he
was a prominent Lreemason and was Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of England in 1908. In World War I he was
a battalion commander in Trance.
He had little impact on the Olympic movement or on the
development of sport in Britain but this was no doubt
due, at least, in part, to his service abroad.
Buchanan/Lyberg
] is o h ]
Lord Ampthill, Arthur Oliver Villiers Russell ISOH Archive
Charles Herbert ISOH Archive
References
VARLYLE, R. I., „Russell, A rthur Oliver Villiers, second Baron
Am pthill”, in: The Times (8 July 1935).
10. C h a r l e s H e r b e r t
Born: 19 January 1846, India
Died: 17 February 1924, Streatham, London
IOC member: No. 10
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: 30 June 1906.
Picture: p. 55
J o u r n a l o f O l y m p ic H is t o r y 1 7 ( M a r c h 2 0 0 9 ) N u m b e r 1
José Benjamin Zubiaur ISOH Archive
55
Hon. Secretary of the (English) Amateur Athletic
Association (AAA) from 1883 to 1906, he was highly
thought of by Coubertin, particularly for his success in
developing the international relationships of the AAA.
Together with William Sloane (USA) he helped Coubertin
organise the 1894 Sorbonne Congress.
Coubertin described Herbert as “Quite reserved, much
more understanding than he seemed at first meeting” and
his impassive manner undoubtedly suited his occupation
as a tax collector but his taciturn nature really stemmed
from a traumatic childhood experience. He was born in
India where his father was a serving Army officer and
shortly alter Charles Herbert went to England for school
ing he suffered the most horrific family tragedy. As an
11 -year-old schoolboy he received the news that, during
the Indian Mutiny, both parents, his brother and sisters
had been massacred in the uprising at Cawnpore in June
1857.
On leaving school he was a successful oarsman, winning,
as did Lord Ampthill in 1890 and 1891, the Silver Goblets
at Henley in 1876 and as runner he was the half-mile and
1 mile champion of the Civil Service.
His career as a sporting administrator came to end in
1906 when he sustained serious head injuries after falling
from the top of a London omnibus. With his mental fac
ulties clearly impaired, he resigned from the IOC and as
Secretary of the AAA.
His early and later life were beset with tragedy but in
between he made a great contribution to
the Olympic movement.
Buchanan/Lyberg
return permanently to Argentina until 1899. Zubiaur first
met Coubertin at an International Educational Congress in
Paris in 1889 and in due course, Coubertin was delighted
to invite Zubiaur to become a founding member of the
IOC, thereby adding to the Prestige of the fledgling orga
nization by having a South American member. In fact, in
the early issues of the Olympic Review Zubiaur is some
times referred to as the ‘Member for South America’.
By 1907 he had not attended any of the six IOC Sessions
which had been held since he became an IOC member
and at the Session in The Hague he was declared demissionaire. In a letter to Coubertin (22 June 1907) he pro
tested strongly against the IOC action but the decision
stood. In retrospect the ruling seems unduly harsh. At the
time, members were required to pay their own travel and
accommodation expenses to attend IOC Sessions and as
a teacher without independent means, Zubiaur no doubt
found the cost of visits to Europe prohibitive. He was
particularly unfortunate to be expelled on the grounds
of non attendance, the Olympic Charter was not then in
existence and de Courcy Laffan’s proposal that a member
could be declared demissionaire for failing to attend three
consecutive Sessions was not carried until 1913.
Having been relieved of his Olympic duties, Zubiaur
continued his career as an educationalist and translated
many works on children’s education.
Buchanan/Lyberg
References
TORRES, Cesar, „Mass Sport Through Education or Elite Olympic
Sport? José Banjamin Z ubiaur’s Dilem m a and Argentina’s Sport
Legacy”, in: Olympiaka 7(1998) p 61-68.
11. J o s é B en ja m in Z u b i a u r
12. L é o n a rd A lb e r t C u ff
Born: 31 March 1856, Parana
Died: 6 September 1921, Buenos Aires
Born: 28 March 1866, Christchurch
IOC member: No. 11
Died: 9 October 1954, Launceston, Tasmania
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Demissionaire: 23 May 1907
IOC member: No. 12
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: 18 January 1905
Picture: p. 55
Picture: p. 58
He was of Basque origin and his paternal grandfa
ther came from Viscaya, Spain. The early death of his
Father resulted in financial hardship for the family and
Zubiaur’s education was rather limited until, at the age of
19, he won a scholarship to Argentina’s Colegio Nacional
del Uruguay. He later studied law in Buenos Aires and
obtained an appointment with the Ministry of Justice,
rising to a remarkably high level for a non-Catholic.
Such was the dominance of Catholicism in Argentina at
the time that Zubiaur’s marriage in 1886 took place in
Uruguay as secular marriages were not recognised in his
home country.
In 1892 he became rector of his alma mater and didn’t
56
The family narre was originally Cuffe but it was angli
cised to Cuff when they moved from France to England
during the reign of Louis XIV. In 1851 the family moved
to New Zealand where they were among the first settlers
at Ee Bons Bay, South Island.
Leonard Cuff was a legendary figure in New Zealand
sports both as a competitor and an administrator. He was
an international cricketer, a fine sprinter and hurdler and
as a long jumper he was three times (1889, 1985-96) the
New Zealand Champion. He also came close to winning
international honours at rugby football. In 1887, at the
age of 21, he was one of the founders of the NZ Amateur
Sorbonne meeting, Italy’s most important sporting organi
zation sought the help of the Italian Embassy in Paris. On
2 June 1894 Senator Francesco Todaro advised Coubertin
that Count Lucceshi-Palli would represent Italian inter
ests at the Congress. De Coubertin approached him to
become a founding member of the IOC and he accepted
the invitation but only on a ‘provisional’ basis. Although
he had no meaningful contact with Italian sport LucceshiPalli took his duties seriously and was a conscientious
member of the Commission of the Olympic Games and
took an active part in the Congress. Afterwards he wrote
a long report on the proceedings which was published in
the bulletin of the Federazione Ginnastica Nazionale on
2 August 1894.
Having fulfilled his initial obligations to the IOC, he
sought a replacement as it became apparent that his IOC
membership would conflict with his diplomatic duties.
He persuaded the Duke d’Andria, a long-standing friend
and another Neapolitian nobleman, to take his place on
the IOC. Count Lucchesi-Palli’s three month member
ship of the IOC is the shortest on record.
Around the time of the Sorbonne Congress he married
the Marquess Giuseppina Nuziante and his career as a
diplomat prospered. After serving in several countries he
was appointed Consul General in Switzerland.
Buchanan/Lyberg
References
LETTERS, Michael / JO BLING, Ian, “Forgotten Links: Leonard C uff
and The Olympic M ovem ent in Australia, 1894-1905”, in: Olym piaka
5(1996), p. 91-110.
GORDON, Harry, A ustralia an d the Olympic Games, St. Lucia 1994,
p. 14-27.
1 4. R ic c a rd o C a r a f a d e l l a S ta d e r a
Duke d’ANDRIA
Born: 12 December 1859, Naples
Died: 19 October 1920, Bologna
IOC member: No. 14
13. C o u n t F e r d in a n d o L u c c h e s i - P a l l i
Prince of Campofranco, Duke della Grazzia
Born: 31 December 1860, Lucca, Sicily
Died: 16 October 1922, Bologna
IOC member: No. 13
Founder member: 23 June 1894 Resigned: September 1894.
Picture:
-
A member of an aristocratic family from the Province of
Lucca who were related to the Bourbons. After complet
ing his law studies in Lucca in 1882, Count Ferdinando
followed the family tradition and entered the diplomatic
corps taking up an appointment in Alexandria later that
year. In 1888 he was promoted to the position of ViceConsul in Paris where he was serving at the time of the
IOC Founding Congress.
As lack of funds prevented the Federazione Ginnastica
Nazionale from accepting Coubertin’s invitation to the
Co-opted:
October
1894
Resigned:
November
1898.
Replacing Count Lucchesi-Palli
Picture: -
The Duke d’Andria is sometimes incorrectly shown as a
founder member but he did not become an IOC member
until October 1894 when he replaced Count LucchesiPalli.
Like his Italian predecessor on the IOC, he came
from an aristocratic Neapolitan family. His father
was Duke Ferdinando di Castelmonte; Marquess of
Corato; Count di Ruvo and his mother, Maria Grazia
Serra, was a member of a ducal family from Cassano.
His marriage in 1885 to Enrichetta Capecelatro, a
lady-in-waiting to Queen Margherita, was appropri
ate for a man of his social station. After attending the
Military Academy in Naples he was commissioned into
the cavalry but he soon transferred to the reserve and
devoted himself to writing. He became well-known as
a novelist, playwright and journalist and with Benedetto
57
Athletic Association and in 1894 he helped form the NZ
Cricket Council. Cuff met Coubertin for the only time
in Paris in 1892 when he was a member of a group of
NZ athletes who were touring Europe. Cuff was also the
manager of the team and evidently impressed Coubertin
with his capabilities as on 16 July 1893 Coubertin, with
some prompting from Charles Herbert (GB), wrote invit
ing him to attend the Congress in Paris the following
year. Although Cuff was unable to accept the invitation,
Coubertin appointed him a founding member of the IOC.
In 1899 his work as an insurance underwriter took him
from New Zealand to Melbourne and he later moved to
Tasmania where he represented the State at bowls and
golf. His move to Tasmania took him away from the
centre of sporting activity and on 18 January 1905 he
wrote to Coubertin tendering his resignation from the
IOC. Coubertin asked him to reconsider but Cuff re
affirmed his decision and recommended the Australian,
Richard Coombes, as his successor to represent Australia
and New Zealand on the IOC. Because of distance, time
and expense Leonard Cuff was never able to attend an
IOC Session but he was a loyal and enthusiastic sup
porter of the movement in its early days. When he died at
the age of 88, he was the last surviving founding member
of the IOC.
Buchanan/Lyberg
Léonard Albert Cuff ISOH Archive
Croce he started the magazine, Napoli Nobilissima.
He was a good fencer and horseman and was a member
of the Regio Yacht Club but this hardly seems to
justify Coubertin’s description of him as an ‘outstand
ing sportsman’. The Duke d’Andria first met Coubertin
in December 1894 when he arranged for him to address
the Philological Circle in Naples and he promised to try
and ensure a significant Italian representation at the 1896
Games. Disappointingly for d’Andria, the promise could
not be fulfilled and Italy’s sole representative in Athens
was a rifleman who entered individually.
In 1898 he resigned from the IOC and suddenly gave
up virtually all of his literary activities. These actions
coincided with his decision to become a politician and
after joining the Catholic Party he became President of a
Regional Council in the 1902 elections. After an internal
dispute over economic policy he left to join the Liberal
Party and in 1904 he was appointed to the Senate. He
spoke frequently on the reform of the electoral system
and on matters of foreign policy and as an active sup
porter of Italy’s plans to establish a Colonial Empire in
Africa he fought in the successful Libyan campaign in
1911. He was also an advocate of Italy’s participation in
World War I and soon before the war ended he made his
last speech in the Senate in July 1918 and he died two
years later following an operation.
Buchanan/Lyberg
1 5 . C o u n t M axime de B o u s i e s
Born: 18 August 1865, Harveng, Hainaut
Died: 11 May 1942, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode
IOC member: No. 15
Co-opted: 14 October 1894 Resigned: 31 December 1900
Count Maxime de Bousies Renson Archive
Picture: p. 58
The first thirteen IOC members were appointed by
Coubertin himself, immediately after the Olympic
Congress of 1894 in Paris. Yves-Pierre Boulongne (1984:
54) has qualified Coubertin as ’an enlightened autocrat’
because he had chosen mostly members who were not
present at the congress. Coubertin later explained his
strategy by stating that “I needed elbow room at the
start, for many conflicts were bound to arise”. He further
stated that he was allowed a free hand in the choice of the
members and that the proposed list was chosen without
Karl August Willibald Gebhardt Carl and Liselott Diem-Archive
58
any amendment (Coubertin 1931: 20).
The Belgian king Leopold II and the socialist politician
-and later Nobel Prize winner- Henri La Fontaine figured
among the honorary members of the 1894 congress, but
did not participate. Six Belgian congress participants
represented the Belgian Cyclists League, the Belgian
Federation of Foot Runners and the Brussels Athletic
J o u r n a l o f O l y m p ic H is t o r y 1 7 ( M a r c h 2 0 0 9 ) N u m b e r 1
] is o h ]
INTERNA TION A L SOCIETY OF
OLYMPIC HISTORIANS
The mentioned Raoul Claes, a lawyer from Leuven
[Louvain], was the president of the Belgian Cyclists
League from 1893 till 1897, which had been actively
involved in the 1894 congress (Lauters 1936: 51; Van
Zutphen 1981; Renson e.a. 2006: 26)3. In the same letter
of September 1894, Bousies also expressed his intention
to wait for Coubertin’s visit to Belgium, before under
taking concrete actions to establish a Belgian Olympic
Committee4. He was keen to learn more about the “oeuvre
très intéressante” which Coubertin had started. Bousies’
membership was announced in the second issue of the
Bulletin du Comité International des Jeux Olympiques
(October 1 1894: s.p.):
“Mr. count Maxime de Bousies will from now on
represent Belgium in the International Committee.
The result o f the proceedings o f the Congress has
been brought under the eyes o f the King, who had
agreed to accept the title o f honorary member.
H.M. has honored us by expressing his great satis
faction with it. ”
A short-lived IO C membership (1894-1901)
Hardly one and a half year later, on February 22 1896,
Bousies wrote from his Brussels residence in the Rue
Bréderode 27 to Coubertin:
“I regret to inform you that the approaches I have
made to the Presidents o f the different Belgian
sports societies have not resulted in assuring a
serious participation from Belgium in the Olympic
Games o f Athens. ”5
He told Coubertin that he had met a strong opposition
from the powerful Gymnastics Federation, which cate
gorically refused to participate in the Olympics. This fed
eration was firmly led by the liberal politician Nicolaas
Jan Cupérus from Antwerp, who was also president of
the European Gymnastics Federation (FEG) from 1897
to 1923 (De Meyer 1986). Coubertin mentioned in
his Mémoirs olympiques (1931: 17) that Cupérus had
strongly declined any participation of Belgian gymnasts
in the 1894 Olympic Congress in the following terms:
“My federation has always believed and still
believes that gymnastics and sport are contradic
tory activities and it has always fought against the
latter as incompatibles with its principles. ”
(Letter from Cupérus to Coubertin of May 1 1894)
Bousies further wrote that the Rowing Federation would
probably send nobody because it feared that the Belgian
rowers might be considered as professionals according
to the Olympic statutes. Only the Cyclists League would
send a delegation of its members, at least this had been
promised by its president Raoul Claes. The high partici
pation costs scared the sport federations and, moreover,
the best Belgian sportsmen were not allowed to partici
pate as they were professionals. For all these reasons a
disappointed Bousies argued:
“I was forced to give up the formation o f a Belgian
Propaganda Committee. I might have obtained
some form al affiliations, but without any serious
impact. It thus became impossible to ask Prince
Albert o f Belgium to patronize an idea, which was
certainly nice and viable, but which was unfor
tunately coldly received ‘chez nous ’. ”
In another letter, sent on June 13 1898 from HotelPension Alpenrose in St-Beatenberg in Switzerland,
where Bousies often resided, he announced his resig
nation as IOC member. He was nevertheless optimistic
about a possible Belgian participation in the 1900 Paris
Games:
“It is more than true that Belgium did not give
any sign o f life in Athens nor in Le Havre [second
Olympic Congress in 1897]. But I have told you
about my unsuccessful efforts to obtain, in the case
o f Athens, a Belgian participation. It will however
be different at the 1900 Games. The great sym
pathies o f our country fo r “la France”, all sorts
o f facilities that will show up, do not allow any
doubts. ”6
He could no longer remain IOC member because of his
long stays abroad and other not sport-related professional
activities. He also expressed his hope that the newly to
be elected Belgian IOC member would succeed to send
many compatriots to the Paris Games.
Bousies’ resignation was not officially accepted and his
mandate would only come to an end in 1901 when he
was succeeded by commander Robert Reyntiens, who
would become IOC member nr. 32 (Comité International
Olympique 1958: 55; Renson & Thielemans 2005).
Who was M axime de Bousies?
Maxime de Bousies belonged to the fourth -and only still
59
and Running Club, but no Belgian was selected among
the original thirteen IOC members (Renson e.a. 2006:
25-26). However, when member nr. 6, the Italian count
Mario Luchesi-Palli dropped out, he was replaced by his
compatriot duke Riccardo d’Andria Carafa as nr. 14 and
at the same time the Belgian count Maxime de Bousies
was added as nr. 15.
Although Bousies was the very first Belgian to become
an IOC member, almost nothing was known about his
life and his deeds. It took a search of nine years to dis
cover a picture of him and to collect more detailed infor
mation on his curriculum vitae (Renson & Thielemans
2005)1.
In his letter of September l l 1894, Bousies wrote to
Coubertin that he accepted to become member:
“I hope to please you and Mr. Claes by accepting
to represent Belgium in the International Olympic
Committee according to the terms indicated in your
friendly Letter. ”2
"j IS O H ]
surviving- branch of the Bousies family. He was bom
on August 18 in 1865 in the family castle at Harveng
in the province of Hainaut as the youngest son of count
Adhémar-J.-Bonaventure de Bousies and Alix-VictoireThéodorine Hanot d’Harveng. He had three older
brothers7. His father was mayor of Harveng and chair
man of the Société d’Economie Sociale de Belgique
(Coomans de Brachène 1985: 131). His parents sent
him to the primary school of the Dominican friars in
Mons, then he started his secondary education first with
the Jesuits at the Saint Stanislas College in Mons from
1876 to 1981, but as his school results were poor, they
transferred him to the Petit Séminaire Bonne Espérance,
where he did much better. There, he became a school
mate of Paulin Ladeuze -also from Harveng- who would
later become rector o f the Catholic University of Louvain
from 1909 till 1940. Bousies studied Political and Social
Sciences at Louvain where he obtained the doctor of
law degree. His father offered him in 1885 a bicycle for
his good results, but he had a serious accident with this
bike in Switzerland which would leave him half deaf for
the rest of his life. From 1914 to 1921 he was mayor of
Harveng, but then he moved to Brussels. Although he
was temporarily engaged with one of the princesses of
the d’Oultremont family, he stayed celibatary for the rest
of his life. In the yearbook Tout Bruxelles1903-1904,
Maxime de Bousies was identified as “avocat (C.d.U),
(CA.L.), (C.P;), 27 me de Brédérode”. He died in the
Brussels suburb of Sint-Joost-ten-Node [Saint-Josse-tenNoode] on May 11 1942 and was burned in Harveng.
Bousies was a many-sided man. Apart from being a
lawyer, he was also a poet, a play-write, an art critic and
a ’conférencier’. As a poet and play write, he published
N ’est pas sceptique qui veut: comédie en deux actes
(1895), Louisette: comédie en deux actes (1895) and also
Claudine Trénier: comédie d ’observation. His works as
art historian are: La miniatutre à travers les âges and
Miniatures et illustrations en Belgique. Bousies was
honored with the title of Knight of the Leopold Order,
which was bestowed on him by the minister of Art and
Sciences “...for his contributions as a literary critic in
Brussels”8. Bousies was also shareholder of the Vivinus
Factory, which had started to make bicycles in the 1890’s
and produced cars from 1899 onwards at Schaarbeek near
Brussels9 (Kupélian e.a. 1980: 125). Apart from cycling
races, he also had a keen interest in car races and was
one of the founding members of the Automobile Club of
Belgium in 1896 (Van Moorter 2002 I: 92; II: 17-18).
Bousies was also a many-sided sportsman. He specially
liked making long walks and cycling tours in the Swiss
Alps. His favorite area of residence was Sankt Beatenberg
in the Swiss canton of Bern, at an altitude of 1200 m and
in the vicinity of the Jungfrau (4150 m) and the Eiger
(3970 m). There is a story, which we could not double
check, that he won a climbing competition in 1890, which
started off near Chamonix and went all the way to the
top of the Mont Blanc. Without any further document to
60
proof this feat, we guess that this is probably more a nice
story than true history (Renson & Thielemans 2005).
The wrong man at the right place?
From the very beginning in 1894, Coubertin wanted the
IOC to be a ‘self- recruiting body’, like the organising
body of the Henley Regattas. However, in a later reflection
on the profiles of the very first IOC members, Coubertin
(1931: 22) had to admit that the IOC had already become
what it was to remain for the next thirty years - a com
mittee composed of three concentric circles:
a small nucleus o f dedicated active members;
a “nursery ” o f willing members capable o f being
educated along the right lines; andfinally, a façade
o f people o f varying degrees o f usefulness, whose
presence would serve to satisfy national preten
sions while lending prestige to the whole. ”
.■
Coubertin most probably classified Bousies/in the third
category. It must be said though that the sport situation
in Belgium was quite an accidented landscape at the time
of Bousies’ mission. There were for instance several cyc
lists federations at that moment, which had very diverg
ing views on allowing amateurs or professionals. In
1893 the Belgian Cyclists League (Ligue Vélocipédique
Belge: LVB) changed its amateur rules and from then
on also accommodated professional cyclists. Two years
later, the Union Belge des Sociétés de Sports Athlétiques
(UBSSA) was founded in 1895 as a national umbrella
organisation, which grouped the following sections:
soccer, track and field, cycling, field hockey, boxing and
tennis. The cycling section of the UBSSA admitted only
amateurs, who were said to be neglected by the LVB.
Eventually, the LVB and the UBSSA joined efforts in
1905 to promote amateur cycling, allowing cyclists to
participate in races organised by both associations (Gils
e. a. 2009). Bousies, who mentioned in his letter to
Coubertin these ongoing disputes about amateur and pro
fessional status, probably had a difficult time to preach
the Coubertinian gospel of pure Olympic amateurism. His
efforts to establish a National Olympic Committee may
have been encountered with scepsis by the leaders of the
UBSSA, which had been created one year after Bousies’
IOC appointment and one year before the Athens Games
of 1896. The UBSSA, with Edouard de Laveleye as
president, may have seen its new power position compro
mised. Nevertheless, the same Laveleye would become
the first president of the Belgian Olympic Committee in
1906 and would later join the ranks of the IOC. So far, by
lack of primary sources, we can only guess and maybe we
should reverse the original question and ask: was Bousies
the right man at the wrong place? We are obliged to refer
to the commonplace ‘more research is needed’!
In 1903, Coubertin specified the tasks of the IOC
members in an article in Revue Olympique (1903: July
35-36), entitled ‘L’organisation olympique’:
“The members o f the Committee are not delegates
] is o h ]
IN TER NA TION A L SOCIETY OF
OLYMPIC HISTORIANS
Their duties were to enter into and maintain frequent,
close contact with the governing centers of the athletic
movement in their country. They should represent an
institution “...that is not pledged to any clique, and that
does not even advocate any form of athletics in prefer
ence to any other... .” To achieve this they had to be fully
imbued with the spirit of the work, of its goals and its
purpose. Through lack of evidence, it is hard to judge
whether Bousies met these expectations. He did not
manage to set up a national Olympic Committee nor did
he succeed in convincing Belgian sportsmen to participate
in the 1896 Athens Olympics. He was confronted with
the hostile attitude of the powerful Belgian Gymnastics
Federation and their authoritarian leader Cupérus towards
the modem Olympic Movement. But we can only specu
late why he failed: was he too involved in his own profes
sional affairs, did he lack the social skills to convince the
leaders of the incipient sport associations in Belgium or
was he too much a ‘cavalier seul’ and not representative
enough for the sportsmen ‘on the field’?
When Coubertin commented in his Mémoires olym
piques (1931: 109) the composition of the IOC in 1911,
he depicted an ideal profile of an IOC member:
“...men competent enough to be able to get to the
bottom o f any particular question, but fa r enough
removed from any exclusive specialisation ever to
become its slaves, men international enough not to
be blinded in any international question by their
strictly national prejudices, men -finally- capable
o f holding their own with technical groups and
who could be counted on to be completely free o f
any material dependence upon the latter”.
Bousies certainly was a man of means, who could afford
to travel and attend IOC meetings or congresses on his
own costs, but he never did... Coubertin had to look
out for another Belgian candidate, hoping that the new
member would succeed where Bousies failed.
Roland Renson & Thomas Ameye
(Attendance Statistics: Buchanan/Lyberg)
Notes
1
The authors like to thank Mrs. Marguérite Stievenart and Mr.
Wilfried Thielem ans for the information they provided on the
Bousies family.
2
Letter from M axime de Bousies to Pierre de Coubertin, September
11 1894 (IOC Archives Lausanne)
3
Raoul Claes (1864-1941) was also co-founder o f the Veloce
Club Louvaniste (1882) and secretary o f the Union Vélocipédiste
Louvaniste (1885). He was a liberal m em ber o f parliament, who
would becom e m ayor o f Leuven from 1934 to 1938 (M attheus
2005: 143).
4
Coubertin had already been in Belgium in 1890 when he visited
the Catholic University o f Louvain. He was very disappointed with
the lack o f sporting drive o f the students there, which he attributed
to the great num ber o f pubs w here they preferred to spend their
free time (Coubertin 1980; Renson e. a. 2006: 19). We are not
aware o f another visit o f Coubertin in 1894.
5
Letter from M axime de Bousies to Pierre de Coubertin, February
22 1896 (IOC Archives Lausanne)
6
Letter from M axime de Bousies to Pierre de Coubertin, June 13
1898 (IOC Archives Lausanne)
7
The three older brothers w ere Baudouin (1859-1921), Oswald
(1861-1878) and Constantin (1862-1929).
8
Docum ent o f N ovem ber l l 1912.
9
His brother Constantin was one o f the co-owners o f the Vivinus
Factory.
References
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Coubertin 1863-1937, Ottawa: Lem eac, 482 p.
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vétéran, Bruxelles: Office de Publicité, 257 p.
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K.U.Leuven, 263 p.
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Vanmeerbeek R), 2006,
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61
o f their countries’ athletic federations to the
Olympic institution. To the contrary, they are rep
resentatives o f that institution to the federations in
their countries, its ambassadors in a sense. ”
]is o h ]
INTERNA TION A L SOCIETY OF
OLYMPIC HISTORIANS
16. K a r l A u g u s t W illib a ld G e b h a r d t
Born: 17 January 1861, Berlin Died: 30 April 1921, Berlin
IOC member: No. 16
Co-opted: 14 January 1896 Resigned: 11 May 1909
Picture: p. 58
One of Germany’s greatest sports leaders and the pioneer
of Olympism in his country. Separate and short-lived
Olympic Committees were formed in Germany in 1895,
1899 and 1903 for the specific purpose of arranging
German participation in the Athens, Paris and St.Louis
Games. Gebhardt was the organizer and Secretary of all
three committees, the third of which endured until 1917.
Gebhardt became an IOC member in 1896 and led the
German team at the Athens (1896), Paris (1900) and
St.Louis (1904) Games where he acted as referee for the
track & field and rowing events. With Ferenc Kemény
(Hungary) he was one of the two official IOC delegates
at the 1904 Games. His only active involvement with
sport was as a fencer at school but in 1897 he was the
founding President of the German and Austrian Fencing
Federation. Two years earlier he was the co-founder of
the German Federation of Sports, Games and Gymnastics
which was one of the first moves towards the federation
of sport within Germany.
Over the years he had an uneasy relationship with
Coubertin and when Gebhardt wrote criticising the orga
nization of the 1900 Games a serious rift developed
between the two.
The son of a printer, he studied chemistry at the University
of Marburg and the Friedrich Wilhelm University in
Berlin where he obtained his diploma. In 1885 he passed
his doctorate with a thesis on organic chemistry but then,
62
with his brother, he took over the management of the
printing shop they had inherited from their father. After
five years he sold his share of the business and moved to
America where he worked for an enterprise which prac
tised therapy by ozone treatment. In 1893 he visited the
Chicago Universal Exhibition where he found much of
interest but his years in the US brought little improvement
to his financial position and early in 1895 he returned to
Germany where he opened an urban thermal station in
Karlsbad in partnership with Baron von Keisenberg. He
also registered numerous patents for his various inven
tions but his ventures only provided a very modest
income. With no regular job and very little money, he
found it difficult to mix on equal terms with the aristo
crats who made up the IOC and the German NOC. It is
thought that a combination of these circumstances led to
his early resignation from the IOC. He died as a result of
a motor accident.
Buchanan/Lyberg
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Sportsmänner. Unveränderter N achdruck der Ausgabe Berlin 1896 im
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an den ersten Olym pischen Spielen 1896 in Athen“, in: NAUL,
Roland / LÄ M M ER, M anfred (Hg.), W illibald Gebhardt - Pionier
der Olympischen Bewegung, Schriftenreihe des Willibald GebhardtInstituts Bd. 3, Aachen 1999, S. 142-160.

The Biographies of All IOC

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