On 23rd July 1881, delegates from the gymnastic federations of Belgium, France and the Netherlands met at the Belgian festival of gymnastics at Liège, Belgium. They had gathered at the invitation of the president of the Gymnastic Society of Belgium, Nicolaas J. Cupérus, to create the Bureau des Fédérations Européennes de Gymnastique ('Office of European Gymnastic Federations') - the world's first international sports federation.
Cupérus served as the president of the federation for its first 43 years, during which time it welcomed new members and became associated with the nascent modern Olympic movement. In 1921 the organisation became the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique ('International Gymnastic Federation') as it accepted national federations from non-European countries. At that time it had sixteen members and a participant in the organisation of the Olympic games, drawing up rules of competition and scoring methodology.
You can learn more about the history of the organisation from the article, Culturel Base Of The Human Motricity, available on the FIG website.
23 July 2008
On this day in history: First international sports federation founded, 1881
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3 comments:
You always have such great historical information I was wondering if you could direct me to any particularly good sites for historical reference for the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Certainly Sassy Mama Bear,
You could try the Intute site for a list of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century resources.
There are similar lists on the History On-Line site too.
If there is something that particularly interests you let me know and I'll see what links I can find.
Thanks for the comment
K
That's some pretty cool info. Sports history isn't exactly my forte, but this was pretty interesting.
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