The British and the Olympics: Britain's Olympic Heritage 1612-2012

"The British have always been mad about sport. In the Middle Ages a king of England actually had to ban football because the men of England were so interested in kicking a bladder around they stopped practising their archery. This book goes from 1612, which was when Robert Dover, a local landowner, set up his ‘Olympicks’. These are still held in Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire at the end of May every year . They are wonderful. Every year somebody actually plays the role of Robert Dover and they have things like shin-kicking, wrestling and wall-climbing. That was the start of the idea of the Olympics in England. And then, in the 19th century, there were games in Liverpool, Morpeth, London and other places which are discussed in the book. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter There was a fascination with the ancient Greek world. The best known initiative was by Dr William Penny Brookes, who lived in Much Wenlock, a little village in Shropshire, and started the Wenlock Olympian Society . Originally the idea was to promote a library to help the locals learn to read. Now it has been revived and it goes on every year in July. They have the Wenlock Olympian Games on the field in Much Wenlock, and it provides a wonderful link. Indeed, William Penny Brookes started to correspond with a chap called Evangelos Zappas who had established very similar games in Greece. The Zappas Olympics started in 1859. He also corresponded with Pierre, baron de Coubertin, who actually came to Much Wenlock in the 1890s and visited Brookes. There’s a passage in something that de Coubertin wrote, where he says that it was the inspiration of the Shropshire country doctor that gave him a nudge when it came to trying to revive the Olympic Games. The British initiatives were very, very important. There were games in London in 1866 called The National Olympian Games, that took place just behind King’s Cross station. They had swimming down at Teddington, near the lock, and athletics at Crystal Palace. One of the people who took part in the athletics was W. G. Grace. He was playing a match at The Oval the day before he was due to run. He was 18 years old. He scored 224 not out, then had the self-confidence to go up to the captain and say, ‘Look, I can’t field tomorrow. Can you find a substitute? I’ve got to go and compete down at Crystal Palace in the athletics.’ And he won the 440-yard hurdles. He did take part in a few other races as well, but didn’t do quite so well. In those days of gentlemen amateurs, people didn’t just specialise in one sport. “The rules around amateurism were strict. People who earned money as ski instructors couldn’t take part, for example.” The public schools helped this culture because they were obsessed with sports. The FA Cup basically came from an idea of a knockout cup at Harrow School . Public schools and their old boys were an impetus behind the development of organised sport in those days and they certainly had a major role in the Olympics. Polley’s book on the Olympics and Britain is beautifully illustrated. It pulls together pictures of so many things that actually show the heritage of the games that people might walk past and not be aware of. People don’t appreciate that we have this tremendous sporting heritage that goes back so many hundreds of years. This book shines a light on that because it’s not just the Olympic Games, which Great Britain has attended on every occasion; it shows that Great Britain was at the forefront of all the activities that encouraged and brought about international sport. Recently, yes. In Atlanta in 1996, the British won only one gold medal and that was Redgrave and Pinsent in rowing. Then they brought in the National Lottery, which transformed things. Going back further, the Olympics had a strict amateur rule and you weren’t allowed to accept money. Some countries abused that, like ones behind the Iron Curtain. They would assign people a job as, say, a soldier, but their duties would consist of, for example, playing football. They played a bit fast and loose with the system and the American collegiate system allowed for something similar. But the rules around amateurism were strict. People who earned money as ski instructors couldn’t take part, for example. It’s only really since the days of Coe and Ovett in the 1980s that British athletics has been well supported. They had the Sports Aid foundation, which was a trust fund/grant type thing, then it became open and after that, of course, people were sponsored and therefore able to train full-time. Attitudes have changed. British athletes are basically being monitored all the time. It’s a whole different ball game."