"CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS" are the iconic words that continue to inspire a new generation of aspiring young athletes all over the world. Together with the five rings symbolizing the five continents, these two elements have come to embody the modern Olympic Games for what we recognize it as today - an all-inclusive movement that hosts the par excellence of sport every four years. Yet, those distinguishing elements couldn't have been  further from what it's controversial aristocratic founder, Pierre de Coubertin, had envisaged when he first conceived of the idea of resurrecting an Ancient Greek tradition. On the pod this week, we speak to Associate Prof. Dr. Jörg Krieger, a well-esteemed sports historian and all-round Olympics connoisseur, going back in time to trace the origins of the modern games and the role of its contentious founding father. Tune in as we discuss the the movement's early years, from the first modern games in its ancestral home of Athens in 1896 , to the last before WWII broke out, hosted by Adolf Hitler's increasingly omnipotent Nazi Germany.