The Olympic and Débrouillard Movements, two visions of Pierre de Coubertin

Pierre de Coubertin, the visionary who revived the Olympic Games, embarked on another significant yet less-known venture within a decade of establishing the Olympic Movement: the Débrouillard Movement.  This movement focused on developing well-rounded athletic completeness and intellectual versatility, qualities inherent to term “débrouillard.”  While the Olympics emphasized specialized athletic events, Coubertin firmly believed that the Débrouillard approach to life was crucial for both individual growth and societal progress. 

Coubertin was able to intersect these two Movements with the inclusion of the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, embodying his ideal of a complete sportsman.  However, the Débrouillard Movement faded into obscurity after the onset of World War I, diverging from Coubertin’s Olympic ideals.

Central to Coubertin’s Débrouillard Movement was a program for French youth, administered through The Société des Sports Populaires,:  the Diplôme des Débrouillards. This Débrouillard challenge consisted of various physical feats including running, jumping (mandatory), throwing, climbing (mandatory), swimming, fencing, boxing, and shooting (mandatory for one of the latter three events).  Coubertin envisioned this program to "emanate a strong individualistic culture based on a reasonable eclecticism."

The Diplôme des Débrouillards captured the imagination of thousands of young Frenchmen, who eagerly embraced Coubertin's challenge. Successful participants were awarded an exquisitely engraved diploma created by artist André Slom, who also designed early Olympic diplomas. Extensive research suggests that debrouillard.com is in possession of the only known Diplôme des Débrouillards on record or displayed online, making it a rare artifact of this forgotten movement.