The Chuck Wielgus Blog: Pierre de Coubertin’s Dream

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Commentary by Chuck Wieglus

Reprinted with permission from The Chuck Wielgus Blog.

Shortly after the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, I signed on as the executive director for the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Team (USCKT). I spent almost two quads leading this NGB, and it was, for me, a great education about international sport.

I learned a great deal about Olympic history during these years, and made it a point to study how it was that Pierre de Coubertin brought the Modern Olympic Games to life in 1896. I was always taken with his oft-quoted statement that, “The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

From the moment when I first heard this quote, I became a firm believer that this was the statement that best represented the proper spirit of the Olympic Games. I have tried very hard to make this philosophy a part of the NGB culture, first with the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Team and now with USA Swimming.

I made my first official trip to an Olympic Games in 1992 with the USCKT, now called USA Canoe/Kayak. It is one of the smaller NGBs in the U.S. Olympic family, but has the fourth highest number of medal opportunities at the Olympic Games.

To explain how different things were back then, I can point to a wonderful example that happened at the whitewater slalom event. We were up in the Pyrenees Mountains, near the border of Andorra, in a little town called La Seu d’Urgell. I was staying in a tiny hotel, it was more like a boarding house, which was only a few hundred yards from the start line of the whitewater slalom course.

The U.S. had a strong contingent of whitewater paddlers in those days. Top among them was Jon Lugbil, the reigning World Champion who competed in the men’s single kayak event. The first U.S. medal, however, was won by the two-man canoe team of Joe Jacobi and Scott Strausbaugh.

When Joe and Scott came across the finish line, I was right there able to help them out of the boat and offer congratulations. With all the security and safety issues that now must be addressed, this would never happen in today’s world.

After getting out of the boat, Joe, Scott and I walked up the hill to the hotel so that we could call (there were no cell phones in those days) John Hildenbiddle to thank him for his support. At the time, John was with the Champion International Corporation, a company that was our major sponsor. It was 4:00 a.m. local time when we reached John by phone that morning, but when you’re celebrating a just-won Olympic gold medal, who cares!

John was an incredible sponsor because he understood that both the governing body and the individual athletes needed financial support, and he provided both. John applied this same formula a few years later when we had the opportunity to partner-up again when he was working at Mutual of Omaha and I had joined USA Swimming as its executive director.

Those Barcelona Olympic Games are believed by many to have been the best ever – at least until the Sydney Games came along in 2000. The IOC President back then was Juan Antonio Samaranch, a Spaniard who had served the government during Franco’s regime as Dictator.

Samaranch had a tradition during his comments at the Closing Ceremonies of declaring the most recently ended Olympic Games as the “Best Ever,” something he couldn’t bring himself to say at the end of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. This slight relegated the much-maligned Atlanta Games to a permanent seat on the back bench for many Olympic old schoolers.

Harkening back to de Coubertin’s philosophy, I have never gotten hung up with medal predictions and medal counts. Of course, it’s fantastic that our swimmers historically have won approximately one-third of all Olympic medals won by Team USA.

Beyond the medal count, what I’ve come to admire and respect most about USA Swimming’s elite athletes is that they are, to a person, the highest caliber of people. When I think about the Olympic ideals, America’s swimmers immediately come to mind.

There are very high expectations for Team USA to perform well in Rio. All the news reports related to the Zika virus, corruption, crime, water quality and doping will hopefully evaporate and the world’s athletes will be able to compete and inspire us with their performances.

Let’s all watch these Olympic Games with a sense of joy, and with the understanding that as USA Swimming members, we are all a part of Team USA competing in Rio. Our athletes have each struggled in their own way, and each one has pursued excellence. Team USA athletes are exactly what de Coubertin had in mind when he dreamed of bringing the Olympic Games back to life. And for many, their pursuit of excellence will result in the glory of winning an Olympic medal.

GO USA!

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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