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The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, thanked his colleagues for re-electing him as president for another four years by calling for an addition to the motto adopted by the Olympic Movement in its early days.
“We learned during this coronavirus crisis the hard way that we can live up to our Olympic motto faster, higher, stronger in sport and in life, only if we work together in solidarity.
“Today I would like to inspire a discussion on whether we should not complement this by adding after a hyphen, the word ‘Together’.”
Bach then translated the motto into French, German, and also used the Latin phrase that had originally been used when the motto was adopted in the late 19th century by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Movement.
“This could be, from my point of view, a strong commitment, with our fundamental value of solidarity and an adequate and humble adaptation to the challenges of this new world,” he said.
“We need more solidarity within societies and between societies and this became evident at the beginning of the coronavirus when you could see that the social gap was widening.
“The world is so interdependent that no one can solve the real big challenges alone anymore.
“I made this proposal to express this need for solidarity to be faster, to be able to aim higher, to be stronger, for that we need to be together, it means that we need solidarity.”
The original motto had been inspired by the words of the Dominican priest Father Henri Didon, a friend and mentor described by Coubertin as “a great apostle with his virile energy.”
Didon spoke in Latin to cheer on his students at the awards ceremony of a school athletics meeting in Arcueil.
Athletic records had found their glorification in the classical style.
“Its essential characteristics were summed up in three short words,” Coubertin said.
Bach revealed that after his re-election as president, he had visited the Olympic House garden where a statue of Coubertin looks out over Lake Geneva.
“I went to the Olympic House garden and checked with Pierre de Coubertin if he would agree to this amendment, and I can tell you that he was smiling at me in the garden, so I am encouraged by our founder,” he said.
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