Educating youth through sport: Understanding Pierre de Coubertin’s legacy today

Abstract

More than a century ago now, the founder of contemporary Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin emphasized the importance of educating youth through sport to create a better and peaceful world. This study aimed to find answer to the posed question, whether Coubertin’s concept can indeed apply to the youth generation at present. Thus, this study examined the potentiality of Olympism as a powerful vehicle for teaching youths the life skills for conflict resolution and inculcating positive knowledge, attitudes, values and morals through the medium of physical education and sport. This study proposed a framework for developing a conflict resolution curriculum model through Olympism and tested it within a strongly ethnically polarized society in Sri Lanka. Introducing the concepts of Olympic values to the secondary school curriculum showed real promise in helping youth to acquire fundamental social skills and ethical values. It has contributed to the academic knowledge of the use of Olympism and has demonstrated how it might be used to strengthen the sport and education nexus and to improve young students’ conflict resolution competencies.