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Chariots of Fire
Mar. 17th, 2012 10:19 amWent to Portsmouth Grammar School last night for their Ides of March Lecture, which this year was about interest in the Ancient Greek Olympics in Britain before the Olympic Games that we know today were created in the 1890s. Before the lecture there was a free drink each, dispensed in reception by two friendly girls. I was early arriving so got to chat to them for a little while; on my mentioning that I'd be seeing some women's football matches at this summer's Olympics, one of the girls revealed that she played for Portsmouth Ladies some 13 years ago - and she knew several of the local women footballers I know, including the lovely Niven sisters.
The lecturer, Dr Martin Polley, was a modern historian with a specialist interest in sport. He began by telling us a little about the Ancient Games - and mused "I wonder what the Greek runners and spectators who gathered for the first Olympiad in 776 BC would have made of the London 2012 Games?" - and then about Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the present Games. Then we went back to the Renaissance in the late sixteenth century, which started modern-day interest in Ancient Greece and Rome, including the Olympic Games. With happy symmetry, the first modern sporting festival to call itself an Olympic Games was the Cotswold Olimpicks, first organised in 1612 by Robert Dover. So, fittingly, London's Olympic year is also the quadcentenary of the birth of modern Olympism - which happened in England.
Further interest was sparked in 1764 when a British explorer discovered the ruins of the ancient Olympic site in Greece. There was just a huge hollow, filled with water and vegetation, which had clearly been the stadium, and a few remains of the surrounding brick walls. Dr Polley asked us "Imagine what the remains of the London 2012 Olympic Park will look like in the year 3383."
With the Muscular Christianity movement of the mid-19th century giving rise to the development of modern sport, sporting festivals and clubs throughout Britain (including Rushall Olympic FC, from the Black Country, originally founded by miners and still flourishing in the Northern Premier League) and also theatres and circuses, looking to Ancient Greece for inspiration, adopted the title 'Olympic' or 'Olympian' as a badge of excellence. There was a boom in amateur sporting festivals calling themselves Olympian in England in the mid-19th century - started by William Penny Brookes who created the Wenlock Olympian Games in Wenlock, Shropshire, in 1850.
And...De Coubertin was floating the idea of an international sporting festival around Europe when, in 1890, he was invited to attend the Wenlock Olympian Games. It wasn't long after that that he produced his blueprint for the Olympics, going on to found the International Olympic Committee in 1894. So the roots of the current Olympics really are English.
Hence the London 2012 mascot being called Wenlock.
Dr Polley ended with a few words about the Paralympics (which began at Stoke Mandeville, thus the London 2012 Paralympic mascot is called Mandeville) and the Special Olympics, and illustrated how 'Olympic' has become a brand with a photo of a kebab house called 'The Olympic Kebab.' "Well, it's Greek," he smiled (it would have been churlish to point out that Doner kebabs are Turkish). His conclusion was that de Coubertin had never intended to create a copy of the Ancient Greek Games, but rather draw inspiration from them.
At the end I joined the people gathering around Dr Polley's table to buy a copy of his book The British Olympics 1612-2012. Fascinating stuff.
The lecturer, Dr Martin Polley, was a modern historian with a specialist interest in sport. He began by telling us a little about the Ancient Games - and mused "I wonder what the Greek runners and spectators who gathered for the first Olympiad in 776 BC would have made of the London 2012 Games?" - and then about Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the present Games. Then we went back to the Renaissance in the late sixteenth century, which started modern-day interest in Ancient Greece and Rome, including the Olympic Games. With happy symmetry, the first modern sporting festival to call itself an Olympic Games was the Cotswold Olimpicks, first organised in 1612 by Robert Dover. So, fittingly, London's Olympic year is also the quadcentenary of the birth of modern Olympism - which happened in England.
Further interest was sparked in 1764 when a British explorer discovered the ruins of the ancient Olympic site in Greece. There was just a huge hollow, filled with water and vegetation, which had clearly been the stadium, and a few remains of the surrounding brick walls. Dr Polley asked us "Imagine what the remains of the London 2012 Olympic Park will look like in the year 3383."
With the Muscular Christianity movement of the mid-19th century giving rise to the development of modern sport, sporting festivals and clubs throughout Britain (including Rushall Olympic FC, from the Black Country, originally founded by miners and still flourishing in the Northern Premier League) and also theatres and circuses, looking to Ancient Greece for inspiration, adopted the title 'Olympic' or 'Olympian' as a badge of excellence. There was a boom in amateur sporting festivals calling themselves Olympian in England in the mid-19th century - started by William Penny Brookes who created the Wenlock Olympian Games in Wenlock, Shropshire, in 1850.
And...De Coubertin was floating the idea of an international sporting festival around Europe when, in 1890, he was invited to attend the Wenlock Olympian Games. It wasn't long after that that he produced his blueprint for the Olympics, going on to found the International Olympic Committee in 1894. So the roots of the current Olympics really are English.
Hence the London 2012 mascot being called Wenlock.
Dr Polley ended with a few words about the Paralympics (which began at Stoke Mandeville, thus the London 2012 Paralympic mascot is called Mandeville) and the Special Olympics, and illustrated how 'Olympic' has become a brand with a photo of a kebab house called 'The Olympic Kebab.' "Well, it's Greek," he smiled (it would have been churlish to point out that Doner kebabs are Turkish). His conclusion was that de Coubertin had never intended to create a copy of the Ancient Greek Games, but rather draw inspiration from them.
At the end I joined the people gathering around Dr Polley's table to buy a copy of his book The British Olympics 1612-2012. Fascinating stuff.
