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Coubertin Hockey History

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The Olympics were reinvented when Coubertin invented the International Olympic Committee in the late 1800s. The IOC was made to modernize the games to societies standards. Coubertin had a more “inclusively cosmopolitan vision and greater organizational skills than any of his predecessors, [he] succeeded where they had failed” (Guttman,121). Originally, Coubertin chose a Greek scholar named Demetrios Bikelas to become the first president of the IOC. He served as president for the six years and then Coubertin took over for almost the next 30 years. Coubertin used the Olympics to introduce new sports to the masses and to show political neutrality when countries were in conflict and/or at war. He was separate beliefs from athletics to make the …show more content…

Hockey became a sport that everyone could bond over. From natives, immigrants, and locals, hockey was able to form a community’s collective identity regardless of where they were from and their socio-economic status. According to Bairner, “there is certainly a perceived Canadian way of playing the game that is celebrated as being in some manner indicative of a national character—rugged, honest, utilitarian” (Bariner,125). This “Canadian way” could have effected Canada’s Olympic Performances because they do not want to be put in the same box as their southern counterpart, the United States. Even though the two countries are connected, Canadians pride themselves on being different from the United States and their standards. They do not want to be categorized together and the Olympics is an opportunity for them to distinguish themselves from Americans. As another powerful nation, the Olympics becomes a time for Canadians to prove that they are a contender among the United States, Russia, and China. The grit that is needed in hockey and the “Canadian way,” is then passed along to all the other Canadian athletes in the games. Hockey pretty much sets the tone for all the other athletes in the summer and in the winter

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