Multiplatform storytelling on
the life & legacy of Pierre de Coubertin,
the founder of the Modern Olympic Games
Multiplatform storytelling on
the life & legacy of Pierre de Coubertin,
the founder of the Modern Olympic Games
Videos
The feature length documentary, Genius of Sport, which covers the life and times of Pierre de Coubertin, began production in 2022 and should be complete by the spring of 2025. In the meantime, here are four chapters of Pierre’s story—delivered in visually compelling motion graphics—that take you from (1) his school-boy education at the Jesuit School Saint Ignace in Paris, (2) his years as a Bon Vivant to the vision he had at Rugby, (3) the Paris 1889 Universal Exposition where he realized the power of global events, and finally to (4) the launch of the Modern Olympic Movement five years later at the Sorbonne.
Enjoy.
Episode 01
From Saint Ignace to Ancient Olympia
Pierre enters a new Jesuit School and is inspired by the discovery of Ancient Olympia.
Episode 02
From Bon Vivant to Rugby
Pierre celebrates the Paris social scene and finds his life purpose at Rugby, England.
Episode 03
The Paris 1989 Universal Exposition
Pierre sees the possibilities of global events and conducts the Congress on Physical Education at the Expo.
Episode 04
The 1894 Olympic Congress at the Sorbonne
Pierre orchestrates the birth of the Modern Olympic Movement before 2000 people at the Sorbonne.
Biography
PRELUDE
Paris 1894—A Dream of Joyous Hope
“I lift my glass to the Olympic idea, which has traversed the mists of the ages like an all-powerful ray of sunlight and returned to illuminate the threshold of the twentieth century with a dream of joyous hope.”[i]
On the night of June 23, 1894, the eighth and final night of the international Olympic Congress in Paris, Baron Pierre de Coubertin raised a toast to his colleagues and thanked them for helping him launch a modern revolution in worldwide sport. On that night, the 31-year-old baron felt he had achieved the impossible. He had succeeded in resurrecting a legendary ancient ritual that had been lost to humanity for more than fifteen centuries. In the euphoria of the moment, he could envision his destiny on a calendar that reached endlessly into the future in four-year cycles, uniting the world in friendship and peace at the Olympic Games. He could envision a parade of world capitals stepping forward, one after the other, to host his modern festival of youth, starting in Athens in 1896 and returning to his hometown of Paris in 1900. At this final sumptuous banquet at Le Pré Catelan on the shores of Lake Bois de Boulogne, with torch lights shimmering in the water and his fiancée, the lovely and wealthy Marie Rothan, looking at him with eyes full of pride, he took pleasure in the work he had orchestrated. Seven nights earlier, he had rallied an international team of dukes, counts, barons, ministers of state, professors, educators, sportsmen, priests, peace advocates, poets, and musicians to stand with a crowd of 2,000 in acclamation of his Olympic idea in the Sorbonne’s grand auditorium.
Indeed, on the night the baron became the father of the modern Olympic Movement, the future glistened with promise. But like the decade just past, it would be filled with fierce opposition, professional jealously, and an endless struggle that would drain his finances and exact a personal toll that would have crushed most men. Nevertheless, he persevered and managed, with a handful of heroic colleagues, to overcome every challenge and to sustain the Olympics through World War I and into the 1920s, where he, bereft of all resources, finally passed the torch to a younger generation committed to his Movement.
[i] Coubertin: From a speech at the closing banquet of the 1894 Congress of Paris, “Les Fetes du Congres,” in the Bulletin du Comité International des Jeux Olympiques, Paris, July 1894, no. 1, p. 3
Tabloid
Exhibit
On June 23, 2024—the 130th anniversary of the founding of the modern Olympic Games in the Sorbonne—the Genius of Sport exhibition opened in the City Hall of 7th arrondissement in Paris. Presented by the Coubertin Family Association under the leadership of Alexandra de Navacelle de Coubertin, the exhibit was opened by Rachida Dati, France’s Minster of Culture and the Mayor of the 7th, and Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee. With the primary narrative content created by George Hirthler and designed by Buster O’Connor, the exhibit featured additional contributions by Christian Seychal and Gilles Lecocq. Diane de Navacelle de Coubertin arranged the display of artifacts from the family collection. Christian Seychal and Sylvan Michoux directed the production and installation of the show.
About
George Hirthler
Genius of Sport is the creation of George Hirthler, the Atlanta-based writer/producer who has spent 30-years studying the life and times of Coubertin. Hirthler is the author of The Idealist, a fictionalized biography of Pierre de Coubertin published in 2016, and the creator of coubertinspeaks.com, a website launched in 2018 featuring 365 inspiring quotes from Coubertin’s writings with accompanying commentaries. He is the founder of the United States Pierre de Coubertin Committee and a board member of the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee. In 1996 he was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France and became the third American recipient of the Pierre de Coubertin Medal from the International Olympic Committee in 2022.
In developing the various platforms of Genius of Sport, Hirthler assembled a multi-talented team to deliver the diverse narratives that comprise Coubertin’s story. For the projects featured on this website, the following people deserve recognition:
Team
Buster O’Connor
Buster is a brilliant 2&3D designer and filmmaker who has collaborated with George on a variety of projects over the last 30 years. He is singularly responsible for the look and feel of the Genius of Sport visual palette and typographic style. The biography, the tabloid newspaper and the Paris exhibit showcase his artistic abilities. Fully independent, Buster applies his imagination and creative skills in helping clients develop brand identities and build them into compelling advertising and digital campaigns across all media. On the corporate front, his work helps clients achieve growth and sales through Foundational Branding and Communications tools for business. He approaches every project from a unique perspective to ensure originality of concept and execution.
Team
Nicolás Pérez-Enciso & Paula Checa
After working together for five years as a creative team in a highly respected Spanish motion graphics agency, Paula and Nico decided to set off on their own and founded “A Little Too Much”, which is emerging as one of Madrid’s most imaginative and innovative creative shops. Handling assignments that range from corporate branding to filmmaking, Paula and Nico and their talented colleagues teamed up with George to deliver the stunning visual effects of the four-part cinematic narrative of Genius of Sport. Now working to complete the full-length documentary on Pierre, Paula and Nico are striving to fulfill their passion for storytelling while giving the world something beautiful in the process.
Team
Alexandra de Navacelle de Coubertin
Alexandra is a change management consultant and leadership coach by profession and president of the Coubertin Family Association in Paris. She led the development of three events to celebrate her grand-grand uncle’s legacy in the run up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, collaborating with George and the team on the development and funding of the Genius of Sport exhibit at City Hall 7e while also producing a concert in the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the founding of the Olympic Movement on June 23rd. At the same time, she was involved in staging a series of Olympic conferences to be conducted during the Games.
Team
Christian Seychal
A long-standing Olympic sports journalist of immense achievement, Christian developed his international reputation during almost 30-years at Eurosport and produced the monthly Olympic TV Magazine for the IOC for two decades. He added the Digital Touch Table to the Genius of Sport exhibition in Paris, giving visitors a chance to look deeper into Coubertin’s story. Now a highly regarded event producer in Paris and abroad, he recently helped organize the second edition of the Centenary Relay of the Olympic Games, as part of AVCO – Voyage au coeur de l’Olympisme in France (Journey to the heart of Olympism Association). He has produced exhibitions in Switzerland, Morocco, Singapore, Denmark and Belgium among others.
Team
Gilles Lecocq
Gilles is a sports psychologist, an author and a passionate historian on sport and religion. He is president of the Francophone Society of Philosophy of Sport and vice-president of the French Pierre de Coubertin Committee. While working on the Genius of Sport exhibit—and contributing a perspective on Coubertin’s influence on modern life beyond the Olympic arena—he found time to translate George’s new bio of Coubertin and write a few strong essays of his own. He is focused on the recognition of some of the boundaries that athletes cross in their quest for excellence, and the burdens they carry as they strive for brilliance in an endless struggle to beat themselves.
Team
Diane de Navacelle de Coubertin
Diane is an artist working across multiple mediums—jewelry making, painting, sculpture—and leads the Education, Arts & Inclusion efforts of the Coubertin Family Association. The author of a recent book on her grand-grand uncle, “Pierre de Coubertin: The Grand Texts,” Diane is passionately focused on promoting the marriage of culture, arts and Olympism in sustainable performances and teaching venues across France and abroad. She helped coordinate the development of the Genius of Sport exhibit at City Hall 7e and arranged the display of the Coubertin artifacts from the family’s collection. In helping elevate awareness of the transformative and inclusive powers of Olympism, Diane has worked with institutions like the ISF, UNSS, the School Sport Foundation, the AEFE and various sport federations.
