The creator of the modern Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” was the French Dominican friar Louis Henri Didon, who befriended Baron Pierre de Coubertin five years before the 1896 Athens games.
The motto, which was originally formulated in Latin faster Higher Stronger It was used before the modern Olympic movement at the Saint Albert the Great school in Paris, where the Dominican carried out his pedagogical work.
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Born in 1840, Father Didon entered the Rondeau Seminary in Grenoble (France) at the age of 9 and during his youth stood out for his ability as an athlete. After knowing the Charterhouse of Grenoble, he decided to follow his religious vocation. Thus, he took the habit of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) at the age of 16. Six years later, after a period of formation in Rome, he was ordained a priest when he turned 22.
Military chaplain, prisoner and refugee
He soon gained fame as a preacher. During the brief Franco-Prussian War, which broke out in July 1870, he was a military chaplain, during which time he was taken prisoner. When he fell ill, he ended up taking refuge in Geneva (Switzerland). From there he was sent to Marseille, where he resumed his preaching activity, controversial at times, which caused him to be retired to Corsica in 1880.
A decade later he was appointed director of the San Albero Magno School, where he established sports as part of the center’s pedagogical programming and promoted competitions. This decision was the result of his convictions and the contact that he established with Pierre de Coubertin since 1891.
In the first race they organized, the domain decided to embroider the famous motto on the school flag, which would become Olympic in 1894, during the first Olympic Congress held in Paris in 1894.
Two years later, Athens hosted the first Olympic Games, which have since been held every four years, only interrupted three times due to the World Wars that occurred in the 20th century (1916, 1940 and 1944) and postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nicholas de Cardenas
Born in 1980, I am a Spanish husband and father and journalist with more than 20 years of experience in print and digital media, specializing in sociopolitical and religious information. I have worked for more than 10 years in defense of human rights and have accreditations in Journalism and Comprehensive Communication. Since July 2022, I have been a correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in Spain, covering international events of the Catholic Church.