The Olympic Games are more than a major entertainment for sport fans. It is a global endeavour that requires leadership engagement at macro and micro levels. Self-leadership to dare to go faster, higher, stronger. Collaborative leadership to do that together. Entrepreneurial leadership to build in four years a complex multi-stakeholder system and deliver a global-scale project. An advocacy-oriented leadership to propose cultural changes that will make the sports community more inclusive, diverse, and an instrument for social development and peace.

During our 100 Days of Summer countdown, we will share some of those leadership stories. And it all starts with Pierre de Coubertin who, at the end of the 19th century, became an advocate for sports education in France and organised the world’s first Congress on Physical Education. His entrepreneurial spirit created a movement that led to the revival of the ancient Olympic Games, with the first modern Games happening in Athens, Greece, in 1896.

Women were barred from taking part in the first modern Olympiad in 1896, and de Coubertin was also against the participation of women in elite track and field events, going so far as to say, “An Olympiad with females would be impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and improper.” Not surprisingly, gender equity in sports has been a major issue in Olympic history. Many leaders have fought and are fighting to establish that equity, not only amongst athletes, but also in the other industries that make the Games happen. Stay tuned for these next weeks if you want to know more about them.

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