African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, Volume 8 (Special Edition CUT) - (2019) ISSN: 2223-814X Copyright: © 2019 AJHTL /Author/s- Open Access- Online @ http//: www.ajhtl.com 1 Olympism and the values of sport: De Coubertin and the Thailand Olympic Academy Suriyan Somphong Faculty of Science and Technology Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University Bangkok, Thailand E-Mail: suriyan.so@ssru.ac.th Abstract In this paper, the author examines how the Thailand Olympic Academy (TOA) can be conceptualized and nurtured into the Olympism values of sport as per de Coubertin’s ideal and vision for the Thailand Olympic Academy. The author offers a conceptualization of Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s emphasis that “The future of civilization rests at this moment neither on political nor on economic bases. It depends solely on the direction which will be given to education.” To reform the education offered or even better drive social reform, Coubertin accepted to use “Athletes” as means and “Olympism” as the object. He had no hope for any country heading to “Utopia” and saw no one wanting to give it a thought. The term “Olympic education”, according to Muller (2000), has not been used until 1970s and it is very doubtful at the beginning amongst researchers that the aim of this subject is to really look at the educational ideals of the ancient Greece or is it merely a marketing campaign of the Olympic Games. For Coubertin himself, “Sporting education” rather than “Olympic education” is to be championed and is in fact the title of his book published in 1922, “Pedagogies sportive” (Muller, 2000). It is interesting and challenging to study how the Olympics can promote a social reform through not only individual sportsperson’s but also with a group of people or an organization that, over the last 150 years, has become the world’s dominant economic institution (Bakan, 2004). The overall aim of the study was to analyze the ideas of the Thailand Olympic Academy with empirical data in order to adjust and to improve the path ahead for Olympic Movement in Thailand. Keywords: Sport, values, Olympism, Thailand Olympic Academy, de Coubertin. Introduction Pierre de Coubertin’s efforts and ideas on Olympism endured for fifty consecutive years with approximately 15,000 pages of papers dedicated to this idea. Muller (2000) encapsulates this this with three sayings as followings: (a) “To celebrate the Olympic Games is to appeal to history”; (b) “Olympism is not a system, but a spiritual and moral attitude”; (c) “My unshakable faith in youth and the future has been and remains the principle that gives life to my work.” One of the last pieces of work on Coubertin’s Neo-Olympism, the Unfinished Symphony written in 1936 , stated that Olympism was the key part of his work (Muller, 2000). To reform the education of the youth and world in general and drive social reform, Coubertin accepted the idea of using “Athletes” as means and “Olympism” as the object. He had no hope for any country heading to a so-called “Utopia” and saw no one of consequence wishing to give it any thought. It is obvious from his work that Coubertin put great efforts on driving the education side of sports, but why? Three kinds of relationship between sport and education can be considered: (a) Sport drives education as the ancient Roman Juvenal stated “mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body). The expression is widely used in sporting and educational settings to express the theory that physical exercise is an important part of mental and psychological well-being; (b) Education drives sport: education will lead people towards sport in a proper way against commercialism and corruption; (c) Sport and education are undivided and unified as one to enhance human being. Coubertin’s emphasis on history is stated by Muller (2000) as “the first of all the sciences in terms of significance and education effectiveness” and it brings in an idea of retrospection on