120 - Hungarian Olympic Committee [antikvár]

1 FOUNDING OF THE IOC - DR, FERENC KEMENY AMONG THE MEMBERS 23 June, 1894. This day brought fundamental change in world sport. The Paris International Congress at the Sorbonne had been on for a week already, and ever more often there had been words about the wish to revive the Olympic Games. The decision was made to restore the Games, and at the same time, the International Olympic Committee was established with 16 members and the Creek Demetrlos Vikelas as its first president. The "opinion leader" was no other than one of the founders. Baron Pierre deCoubertin, who hopedfortheimprovementof international relations and to foster peace through the revival ofthe Olympic Movement. After 1500 years, the Olympic Games were staged again, in Athens. With Executive Board member Dr. Ferenc Kemény being among the founders, we Hungarians were also involved. Some contemporary authors say the correspondence between Coubertin and Kemény started in 1894, afterthe issue ofthe circular letter in January, but it is a notable fact that in 1891 Coubertin had already sent a copy ofhis book, "Universitas Transatlantiques" published in 1890 Paris, to Kemény. Dr. Ferenc Kemény was born in 1860 in Nagybecskerek, an after his secondary school years spent in Hungary and Germany he studied at the Budapest University of Science, where he gained his teacher certificate first in mathematics and physics, then in German and French language and literature. Between 1884 and 1884 he studied at the Sorbonne, where he made acquaintance with Coubertin. He worked as a teacher, author and editor, and deeply believing in peace and the Olympic Movement, he was among the founders of the Hungarian Olympic Committee as its secretary general. In 1907 he resigned in a letter his IOC membership as well as his national role in sport: he fell victim to the war between the gymnastics movement and the supporters of athletics, which at that time was led for the absolute leadership of Hungarian sport. Afterthe Nazi-inspired Hungarian "nyilas" (Arrow Cross) party's rise to power, he was to be sent into a ghetto. In November 1944, at the age of 84, he presumably chose suicide as an escape, together with his wife. From left to right: Willibald Cebhardt, Pierre de Coubertin, Jir'iStanislov Guth-Jarkovsky, President Demetrios Vikelas, Ferenc Kemény, Alexey Dmitriyevich Butovsky and Viktor Gustaf Baick at the inaugural meeting ofthe IOC