OLYMPIC RESEARCH CORNER THEOLYMPICEFFECT BRUCE KIDD ASSESSES JUST WHAT CLAIMS THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT CAN TRULY MAKE ABOUT ITS CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY AND ITS 62OLYMPIC REVIEW

POSITIVE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LEGACIES F or Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic Games were to inspire a broadly based social movement which, through the activity of sport and culture, would enhance human development and make the world a better place. In Coubertin's vision, sport and the engrossing self-testing of athletic training and competition were to deliver a much more stimulating, embodied form of education than the stultifying didactic teaching OLYMPIC RESEARCH CORNER OLYMPIC REVIEW63 of his time, invigorating participants for ambitious, public- spirited careers. The encounter of rivals and spectators from different countries was to enable the peoples of the world to better understand each other, and lead them to settle conflict by peaceful means. Sport and culture were means to an end. Coubertin's successors on the International Olympic Committee have grafted other ambitions onto his philosophy of Olympism, including the eradication ? Below The major cities of the world have sought and staged the Olympic Games