III Olympic Congress Brussels 1905

03-Olympic-Congress-Brussels-1905-banner

The Brussels Congress of 1905 was to have taken place two years earlier in order to determine the regulations of the 1904 Olympics, but when the head of the Organising Committee resigned it was postponed to 1905.

Not for the first time an Olympic Congress was scheduled with the original agenda removed, leaving the way clear for Pierre de Coubertin to devise the programme according to his wishes. He took the opportunity to return to the pedagogical themes discussed at the 1897 Congress.

Marcel Prévost

But while the subject matter may have been familiar, the 1905 Congress was significant for drawing its delegates from a far wider net than either of the two previous Congresses. There were 205 people from 21 countries in Brussels, sent by 14 governments, nine universities and 54 sports federations. The USA and South America were both well represented. Among the participants were teachers, professors, officers, physicians, journalists, sports officials, scientists and writers. The ceremonial address was given by Marcel Prévost, a famous French novelist who spoke on “The Mind in the School of Sport”.

Recommendations

The official title of the event was the International Congress for Sport and Physical Education and many recommendations came out of it addressing issues ranging from formal exercise in schools to competition between nations. But the recommendations of the 1905 Congress were of less importance than the fact that, in Brussels, different circles which until then had not had any contact with sport, met for the first time and worked successfully together.

IOC Congresses

I Olympic Congress - Paris 1894

II Olympic Congress - Le Havre 1897

IV Olympic Congress - Paris 1906

V Olympic Congress - Lausanne 1913

VI Olympic Congress - Paris 1914

VII Olympic Congress - Lausanne 1921

VIII Olympic Congress - Prague 1925

IX Olympic Congress - Berlin 1930

X Olympic Congress - Varna 1973

XI Olympic Congress - Baden-Baden 1981

XII Olympic Congress - Paris 1994

XIII Olympic Congress - Copenhagen 2009

More about IOC history

Evolution of the IOC

Founded at the first Olympic Congress in Paris in 1894, the IOC is the leader of the Olympic Movement and the guardian of the Olympic Games. It acts as a catalyst for collaboration across the entire Olympic community. Discover some of the key milestones in the IOC’s history, from the first publication of the Olympic Charter in 1908 to the founding of the Executive Board in 1921 to the first ever Olympism in Action Forum in 2018.

Lausanne, Olympic capital

The IOC was originally based in Paris, until Pierre de Coubertin moved it to Lausanne on the shores of Lake Geneva in 1915. In 1994, to coincide with the centenary of the IOC, Lausanne was officially designated the Olympic Capital. Read here to discover more about the relationship between the IOC and the city it calls home.

IOC Presidents

Since the creation of the IOC in 1894, there have been nine presidents. The president is elected by the Session in a secret ballot among the IOC Members. Today, the president is elected for a term of office of eight years, renewable once for a period of four years. The current President is Thomas Bach – meet him and his predecessors here.