When he announced in Paris, on a winter's evening in 1892, the forthcoming re-establishment of the Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin was applauded, but nobody at the time imagined the scale of the project entailed by reviving the ancient Olympic Games, appointing a committee in charge of organising them and creating an international movement.[Full story]

On 23 June, 1894, Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in a ceremony held at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. Demetrius Vikelas from Greece became the first president of the IOC. Two years later, in 1896, the first Olympic Games of the modern era were held in Athens.[Full story]

The IOC's role is to choose the host city and establish the candidature and election process. The choice of host city is the prerogative of the IOC Session, i.e. the general assembly of the IOC's members. The IOC EB determines the procedure to be followed until the election by the Session.[Full story]

The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries. They bring together athletes designated by their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and whose entries have been accepted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[Full story]

The IOC devotes a great deal of attention to protecting the athletes, the heroes of the Olympic Games, and has undertaken the following actions ...[Full story]

Although the beneficial effects of sport for development are still not exploited to their full extent, sport can help bridge cultural and ethnic divides, create jobs and businesses, promote tolerance and non-discrimination, reinforce social integration, and advocate healthy lifestyles.[Full story]

The IOC has played an important role in the development of the sport and environment agenda, by establishing a policy that seeks to provide greater resources to sustainable development in and through sport at national, regional and international level, and particularly at the Olympic Games.[Full story]