This paper reviews the career of Baron Coubertin and highlights how his campaign for a modernizing revival of the spirit of ancient Olympic contests brought him into often adversarial contact with the medical establishment of his era.
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References
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HughesT. Tom Brown's School Days. London: Macmillan, 1879 [first published, 1857]: p. 352
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CoubertinP. Les Batailles de l’éducation physique … 1887–1908. Paris: Librairie de l’éducation physique, 1909: p. 5
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Coubertin's immediate response to the academicians is well encapsulated in ‘Le Remède au surmenage’. La Réforme sociale1888;6:241–9
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See especially Beard GM. A Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion (Neurasthenia). New York: W Wood, 1880
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See Proust A, Ballet G. L'Hygiène du neurasthénique. Paris: Masson, 1897
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CoubertinP. Olympic Memoirs. Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 1979 [originally published 1931]; p. 27
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CoubertinP. The Olympic idea: discourses and essays. Köln: Carl Diem Institut, 1967:96–7
