Count Henri de Baillet-Latour was born in Brussels, Belgium, on 1 March 1876. The eldest of three children, he was the son of Count Ferdinand de Baillet-Latour, former Governor of the Province of Antwerp, and Countess Caroline d’Oultremont de Duras. After studies at the University of Louvain, he undertook several diplomatic missions abroad for King Leopold II, whom he had known since childhood. In 1903, the King tasked him with organising sport in Belgium. This new mission came at just the right time, as Baillet-Latour was co-opted as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Belgium that same year. In this connection, his first well-known contribution to Olympism was the successful organisation of the 3rd Olympic Congress in Brussels, in 1905. Between his election as an IOC member and the holding of this Congress, he married Countess Elisabeth de Clary on 14 July 1904. Baillet-Latour took part again in the Olympic adventure when he helped to found the Belgian National Olympic Committee in 1906. One of the tasks of this body was to organise Belgium’s representation at the Olympic Games. As such, on two occasions Baillet-Latour found himself acting as Chef de mission for the Belgian team, coordinating his country’s participation in the Games in London (1908), then Stockholm (1912). The first Olympic Games organised after the Great War were in Antwerp, in 1920. Baillet-Latour had the delicate task of planning these Games, as Chairman of the Executive Committee for the VII Olympiad. Despite the political sensitivities resulting from the conflict, the short time available and the meagre budget available to him, he rose to the challenge skilfully and made the Games a success. His leadership, diplomacy and organisational talents were clear to see. At the Prague Congress in 1925, taking advantage of his reputation acquired from the Antwerp Games, Baillet-Latour was elected for a first eight-year term as IOC President, as the successor to Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He was re-elected for a second term at the 1933 Session in Vienna, and remained President until his death in 1942. His presidency was marked chiefly by the issue of amateurism, discussions over recognising the International Federations (IFs) and the Second World War, which among other things forced the cancellation of the Games in 1940. In addition, being more pragmatic than Coubertin, Baillet-Latour was concerned mainly with the more technical aspects of Olympism. Among other things, he ensured that the IOC’s rules, and the decisions taken at the congresses, were respected when the Games were organised. During his presidency, which lasted seventeen years (1925-1942), Henri de Baillet-Latour devoted himself to maintaining the Olympic ideals and aims. He endeavoured continually to keep sport free from all commercialism. The third IOC President died in Brussels on the night of 6 January 1942, a few months after the accidental death of his son on a mission with the Free Belgian Forces.