Robert Stuart de Courcy Laffan

In 1892, at a jubilee of the French Union of Athletic Sports Societies, Baron Pierre de Coubertin introduced the idea of a modern Olympics. His idea was fairly vague, and it seems that even Coubertin himself did not have a clear idea what form such games would take. Two years later, Coubertin organized a meeting which brought together 79 delegates from 12 countries to discuss how to revive the Olympic games. The meeting established the first International Olympic Committee, and the basic framework of having the games every four years, with the first to take place in Greece, was decided upon. http://history1800s.about.com/od/sports/a/Coubertin.htm

At the Le Havre Congress of the International Olympic Committee in 1897 Robert Stuart de Courcy Laffan represented the Headmasters’ Conference – the association of headmasters of the English Public Schools. Laffan was an unlikely “Olympic” emissary; as neither a physical educator nor an exceptional athlete but he … brought … to Le Havre a message of the true commitment for the value of organised physical activity …

When Laffan spoke … the effect of this newly found ally led [Baron Pierre de] Coubertin to be “… convinced that a new collaborator of the most invaluable quality had come down from the heavens to help us.” … the friendship that developed between Coubertin and Laffan was to be “profound and stable … In his presentation Laffan spoke of the broader value of sporting activity. He said that it was through physical exercise that man came to know himself better, and that this in turn would lead to the establishment of the Brotherhood of Man.

The endorsement of both the spiritual and physical benefits of sport were much appreciated by the audience. He presented a different slant on the potential contained within the concept of Olympism: a more overtly philanthropic aim which would have been recognised by the audience as highly palatable to their respective supporters at home.