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The Olympic Manifesto, an 1892 speech by a French aristocrat that outlined the vision and revival of the games, fetched $8.8 million at auction Wednesday.
The handwritten 14-page manuscript by Pierre de Coubertin sold for more than eight times the estimated winning figure after a 12-minute bidding war between two international buyers at a Sotheby's auction. The final bid set a world auction record for sports memorabilia, according to Sotheby's.
"Today's record result stands as a testament to Pierre de Coubertin's vision of more than a century ago, and the reverence with which the Olympic games are still held," said auctioneer Selby Kiffer.
De Coubertin wrote the manuscript for a speech to be delivered at Sorbonne University in Paris in which he advocated for athletics and the resurrection of the ancient Greek games. It is the only known copy of his speech.
"Let us export rowers, runners and fencers; this is the free trade of the future, and the day that it is introduced into the everyday existence of old Europe, the cause of peace will receive new and powerful support," de Coubertin wrote.
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The Olympic Games manifesto written by Pierre de Coubertin for an 1892 speech sold at auction for $8.8 million Wednesday. (Sotheby's)
"That is enough to encourage me to think now about the second part of my program. I hope that you will help me as you have helped me thus far and that, with you, I shall be able to continue and realize, on a basis appropriate to the conditions of modern life, this grandiose and beneficent work: the re-establishment of the Olympic Games."
In 1894, de Coubertin co-founded the International Olympic Committee, which was followed in 1896 by the first modern games in Athens, Greece, the BBC reported.
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"He wanted something that all nations could take part in, a way to compete against one another, but not in the way that we usually compete against one another, which is going to war," Richard Austin, head of Sotheby's Books & Manuscripts Department, told Reuters.
The documents feature crossed-out lines and revisions as de Coubertin expanded his vision for the games. He served as president for the IOC from 1896 to 1925, according to the auction house.