Baron Pierre de Coubertin, apart from being the real founder of the International Olympic Committee and the modern Olympic Games was also a noted French pedagogue and historian, who was born in France. From his childhood being the scion of an aristocratic family and the third child of Charles Louis de Frédy and Agathe-Gabrielle de Mirville, he was quite interested in several facts of history. Besides he was also quite inspired by his visits to the British and American colleges and universities, and set out to improve his education. To his consideration, a significant part of this improvement should be sports education, which to him was nothing except an important part of the personal development of young people. His interest in the realms of sports is evident from the fact that he was the the referee of the first ever French championship rugby union final on 20 March 1892 between Racing Clud de France and Stade Francais! Being such an ardent votary of athletics and different disciplines of sports he conceived of an international competition to promote athletics. In the meantime recognizing a growing international interest in the ancient Olympics, fed by recent archaeological findings at Olympia, De Coubertin became firm and devised a plan to revive the Olympic Games. With this end in view on 23 rd June, 1894 he organized an international congress at the Soborne, in Paris, where he proposed his desire to reinstate the ancient Olympic Games. Under his initiative the International Olympic Committee or IOC was established of which De Coubertin became the general secretary. It was also decided under the guidance of De Coubertin that the first modern Olympics would take place in Athens, Greece and that they would be held every four years. Even he was the creator of the modern pentathlon for the 1912 Olympics and remained also the Honorary President of the IOC until he died in 1937 in Geneva, Switzerland. It should be noted, that he was buried in Lausanne (the seat of the IOC), although his heart was buried separately in a monument near the ruins of ancient Olympia.

To immortalize the fond memory of this great person it was decided by the International Olympic Committee or IOC, to introduce De Coubertin medal, also known as the True Spirit of Sportsmanship medal to those very athletes who are found to demostrate the best example of the spirit of true sportsmanship in the realm of Olympic Games. It should be remembered, with this end in view, the De Coubertin medal was introduced in the Olympics of 1964, dedicated to the founder of the modern Olympic Games Baron Pierre de Coubertin. According to the Olympic Museum, "it is one of the noblest honours that can be bestowed upon an Olympic athlete". Not only this, but also the Pierre de Coubertin medal is considered by many athletes and spectators to be the highest award that an Olympic athlete can receive, even greater than a gold medal. Even the International Olympic Committee considers it as its highest honor. The two emminent winners of the de Coubertin medal are Eugenio Monti and Lutz Long. For instance,
"Nash didn't win because I gave him the bolt. He won because he had the fastest run" , was said by Eugenio Monti, when interviewed after giving a bolt from his own bobsled to his competitors, the British bobsled team, at the Winter Olympics in 1964.