Albert, Count Bertier de Sauvigny was a cousin of Pierre de Coubertin, which led to his co-option onto the IOC in November 1903. Count Bertier de Sauvigny was from a noble French family, of which one member was an early victim of the French Revolution. He competed in rowing, fencing, riding, and archery and in 1900 wrote the classic work on archery in French, Tir à l’Arc. He wrote many other works on historical subjects, including History of a Small Community during World War I, and he served as Mayor of that community for 35 years. As a career he worked in the financial field, and was President of the board of a major insurance company. Because of his relationship to de Coubertin, Count Bertier de Sauvigny was chosen to place the urn containing Coubertin’s heart in its final resting place at Olympia in 1938.
France