Tokyo 2020 Olympics is just around the corner with the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic looming. Athletes from all around the world have either already touched down in Tokyo or are on their way to produce their A-game and bring home a coveted Olympics medal.
But very few know that the Summer Games is inspired by a small Shropshire town of Much Wenlock in the United Kingdom. The friendly, close-knit town has a population of around 3,000, making it rather unbelievable how it has connections to the modern Olympic Games.
The history
In the 19th Century, a local doctor who went by the name of William Penny Brookes rekindled the Olympic flame. He founded the Wenlock Olympian Society inspired by the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece. It was aimed through a flagship annual competition to “promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Wenlock, and especially of the working classes,” BBC reported.
The Wenlock Olympian Games was launched in 1850 and it attracted quite a lot of spectators and competitors from all around. Participants and fans from as far as London and Liverpool visited the Wenlock Olympian Games. However, there was always one “locals only” activity to keep the residents of the town glued.
The games are still held today with a more conventional repertoire. It is held alongside typical country sports and classical athletics.
From Wenlock scenes to global scenes – the Olympian trail
Much Wenlock’s 1.3 -mile Olympian trail speaks volumes about the tale that led to the expansion and eventual adaptation of a regional affair to an international affair.
The Olympian Trail starts at the Much Wenlock Museum and Visitor Information Centre. The trail that goes alongside the street where floral displays and family businesses are of focus winds itself and reaches the Corn Exchange where the second bronze Olympian Trail marker can be spotted. The Corn Exchange, in the modern scenario, is a public library.
It was at the second marker that the Wenlock Olympian Society was established by Brookes.
The next stop in the trail can be found at the Raven Hotel. In 1890, after visiting the Wenlock Olympian Games and hearing of Brookes’ dream to stage an international Olympics revival in Greece (which was unsuccessful at that time), it was here that historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin gave a speech that expressed his affinity with the doctor’s ideas.
The Frenchman went on to cofound the International Olympic Committee in 1894 and its first Summer Olympics event was held in the Greek capital in April 1896. Sadly, it was held four months after Brookes died at 86.
The next stop is at Brookes’ grave on the grounds of Much Wenlock Parish Church. This is a sombre spot in an otherwise celebrated trail that puts up a bright picture of the Wenlock Olympian Games history. From the pageantry to the Society’s first honorary member, Petros Velessarios, winner of a 1,400-yard race staged in Athens, the trail has history oozing from the walls of the building, houses of the town.
The route ends at the Much Wenlock Museum and Visitor Information Centre.
The Centre holds the beautiful history of the town’s Olympic story that tells the tale of sporting veterans to royal visits and carnivals. It also holds the several cups won by champion tilter Charles Ainsworth during the early Wenlock Olympian Games. The museum had its major renovation in 2012.
When the Olympics came to London, Much Wenlock’s heritage was celebrated, globally.
The museum’s renovation was done in the same year as the Olympics was held in London – 2012. This return saw Much Wenlock’s heritage celebrated worldwide. Meanwhile, to mark the occasion, a special version of the Wenlock Olympian Games was held. It involved 2,385 competitors aged eight to 80. It also included four young Brazilian athletes aspiring to compete in Rio 2016.
During that time Wenlock Olympian Society’s PR and media secretary, Mac Bardsley, said that this feels like a “historic responsibility” to honour what Brookes began some 170 years ago for the benefit of their community, BBC reported.
170 years later, the July games are still held – The legacy remains
The town’s annual games are still a major highlight in its history that witnessing both adults and children taking part in the event.
Even though Brookes’ legacy remains unknown beyond the boundary of the town, global engagement has grown multiplied since 2012. Members of the Tokyo Games committee visited Much Wenlock in 2014 as part of their preparations.
