Pierre de Coubertin was born on January 1， 1863， in Paris， France. As a child of a noble family， he received a good education and developed a strong interest in literature and history. He refused the military career planned for him by his family， as well as renouncing(聲明放棄) a promising(有前途的) political career in order to serve his people better.

Coubertin was a very active sportsman and practiced the sports of boxing， fencing(擊劍)， horse-riding and rowing(劃艇). He was convinced that sport was the springboard (出發(fā)點，跳板) for moral energy and he defended his idea with rare tenacity¹.

His study of history made him wish the Olympic Games were still being held. He thought it was the ideal(理想) that everyone should try to reach. He was sure that bringing amateur athletes together would pro- mote² friendly relations between the countries. It was this conviction(確信，深信) that led him to announce at the age of 31 that he wanted to revive³ the Olympic Games.

He made this announcement in a meeting at the Union of French Societies of Athletic Sports， for which he was Secretary General(秘書長). No one really believed him and his statement was greeted with little enthusiasm. Coubertin， however， was not discouraged and on 23 June， 1894 he founded the International Olympic Committee in a ceremony held at the University of Sor- bonne in Paris. Demetrius from Greece became the first president of the IOC.

Two years later， in 1896， the first Olympic Games of the modern era was held in Athens. On that occasion Coubertin was eleced the second president of the IOC and he remained president until 1925. Due to the 1st World War， Coubertin requested permission to establish the headquarters (總部) of the IOC in Lausanne， Switzerland， which was a neutral(中立的) country. Coubertin withdrew (退出，離開) from the IOC in 1925 to devote himself to his pedagogical (教育學的) work， which he termed his \"unfinished symphony(交響樂)\".

Coubertin suddenly died of a heart attack on September 2， 1937， in a park in Geneva， and thus his \"symphony\" remaind unfinished. The city of Lausanne had decided to award him honorary⁴ citizenship (公民) of the city， but he died just prior to⁵ the ceremony.

In accordance with⁶ Coubertin's last wish he was buried in Lausanne， although his heart was buried separately in a monument near the ruins of ancient Olympia.

注釋：

1. tenacity n. 堅持，固執(zhí)

2. promote vt. 促進，增進

3. revive vt．使復興，振興

4．honorary adj.名譽的

5．prior to 在…以前

6. in accordance with 與…一致，依照，根據

皮埃爾·德·顧拜旦1863年1月1日出生于法國巴黎。作為一名貴族家庭的孩子，他接受了良好的教育，并對文學和歷史產生了濃厚的興趣。為了更好地為民眾服務，顧拜旦拒絕了家人為他在軍隊中謀取的職位，還放棄了前程似錦的仕途之路。

顧拜旦是一個非?；钴S的體育運動愛好者，練習過拳擊、擊劍、馬術和劃艇。他堅信體育運動是推動道德力量產生的工具，并用罕見的毅力捍衛(wèi)了自己的這一觀點。

通過對歷史的研究，顧拜旦希望奧林匹克運動會能再度舉行。他認為這是每個人應當為之努力的理想。他相信把業(yè)余運動員召集在一起能夠促進各國間的友好關系。正是基于這一信念，顧拜旦在31歲時宣布他想復興奧林匹克運動會。

顧拜旦在法國田徑運動協(xié)會聯(lián)合會的會議上宣布了這一決定，當時他是該組織的秘書長。但是沒有人真正相信他，對他的倡議大家反應冷淡。然而顧拜旦并未泄氣，1894年6月23日，他在巴黎索邦大學的一個典禮上成立了國際奧林匹克委員會。來自希臘的季米特里奧斯當選為國際奧林匹克委員會的第一任主席。

兩年后的1896年，第一屆現代奧林匹克運動會在雅典舉行。那一次，顧拜旦當選為國際奧林匹克委員會的第二任主席，他擔任這一職位一直到1925年。由于第一次世界大戰(zhàn)的爆發(fā)，顧拜旦征得同意在中立國——瑞士的洛桑成立了國際奧林匹克委員會總部。1925年顧拜旦不再擔任國際奧林匹克委員會的主席，投身到教育事業(yè)中，他稱之為“未奏完的交響樂”。

1937年9月2日顧拜旦在日內瓦的一個公園里猝死于心臟病發(fā)作，他的“交響樂”也就仍然沒有完成。洛桑市本已經決定授予顧拜旦“榮譽市民”稱號，但他就在頒獎典禮之前去世了。

遵照顧拜旦的遺愿，他的遺體被埋葬在洛桑，而他的心臟則單獨埋在了古代奧林匹亞遺址附近的一座墓穴里。