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[kimon07]

The modern Olympics British Myth.

Now that the 2012 Olympics are over, it is time to bust the Myth that the modern Olympics were revived in Britain.

To do this, I will use the very source used by Jerry on Friday August 03, 2012, posted under the locked thread titled “The Games Have Come Home”. Jerry posted the following: (Note: I have marked in red some lies).

Re: The Games Have Come Home...!!!
by Jerry » Fri Aug 03, 2012 8:13 pm

The modern Olympic games certainly have come home. Were it not for the efforts of Dr William Penny Brookes the games may never have been revived. He started holding athletic meetings in Much Wenlock in 1850 and went on to stage the National Olympian Games at Crystal Palace in 1866. Over the following decades he repeatedly urged the Greeks to revive their ancient games. Four years after visiting Much Wenlock in 1890 Baron Pierre de Coubertain formed the International Olympic Committee.
http://www.bl.uk/sportandsociety/explor ... les/mw.pdf

No doubt the usual Brit bashers will wish to play down William Penny Brookes's part in the revival of the Olympic Games. Be my guest, I bet I know who will be first.

Well, here is the first quest:

Jerry twisted the content of the article of his own link. And he lied saying that: “Over the following decades he (Brookes) repeatedly urged the Greeks to revive their ancient games.” Here is the truth deriving from the content of Jerry’s link as well as from wiki:

From Jerry’s link:

By 1859 Brookes’ international relations had emerged as he became involved in the Greek Olympic movement, which was being initiated at the time by poet, Panagiotis Soutsos.

The revival in Greece did not take long to reach Brookes, thanks to what David Young describes as a ‘nameless Olympic hero,’ which he believed to have changed the course of history by writing from Athens to a local Shropshire newspaper.

In early September 1858 Eddowe’s Shrewsbury Journal published a diminutive article introducing the Olympic activity occurring in Athens at the time, ‘…the queen regent has just signed a royal decree for the re-establishment of the Olympic Games…they are to take place in October, every fourth year commencing in 1859.’

This is possibly the first suggestion of reoccurring Games, yet it is noted that still no international element was mentioned at this time. The article goes on to make a mention of gentleman, Evangelis Zappas who both formed the idea and funded the Games sending money to the Greek Government.

These Zappas Games continued intermittently, with varying levels of success, until the revival of the international Olympian Games in 1896.

In anticipation of the 1859 Athens Games Brookes held his own athletic event in July of that year designed to be a much more grand affair than in previous years, something that was not lost on the local media ‘Gay banners, beautiful flowers, festoons, colours and every imaginable token of festivity was there to greet us.

Excited by the news in Greece, Brookes quickly contacted Sir Thomas Wyse, a British ambassador in Athens and communication soon followed. An article appeared in the Wellington Journal newspaper 34 years after this with Brookes declaring that his correspondence with Wyse in 1858 resulted in him acting as advisor for the restoration of the Games

…………………..

The importance of the WOS was not initially aimed towards recreating the earliest Olympic Games but instead Brookes sought to mirror their ideologies as he hoped to emulate his perception of ancient Olympic philosophy, highlighting ones intense desire to win and be recognised as the best. Brookes often referred to his Games as being Olympian as opposed to Olympic....
..........
By 1860 Brookes sought to define the Games on both a regional and international level. On 2nd February 1861 Wyse wrote to the Englishman telling how the £10 gift had been awarded and gave further details on the event in Athens. Brookes’ international intention became clear as he proposed that Petros Velissariou, winner of the prize, become an honorary member of the WOC Furthermore Brookes decided that the program from the event in Athens would be distributed to Mayors in all Shropshire towns as well as to a Manchester newspaper which also invited Greek residents to attend the Wenlock Games in August that year.

Brookes’ Wenlock Games began to slowly highlight the influence from proceedings in Athens as he discarded many of the bucolic events as the Wenlock Games became more self consciously ‘Olympic.’ Greek mottos and banners were on exhibition in the parade, and a medal was introduced featuring Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. It was at this time that Brookes’ idea of Olympism was criticised for the first time. Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Edwards, guest of honour at the event, enjoyed the Games but did exude positivity towards the new associations with Greece and went as far as to propose that the terms Olympian and Olympic be removed from the organisation; …..

Zappas Olympics

First event 1859
Last event 1875
Headquarters Athens, Greece

Sponsor Evangelis Zappas

The Zappas Olympics (Greek: Ζάππειες Ολυμπιάδες), simply called Olympics (Greek: Ολύμπια, Olympia) at the time, were a series of athletic events held in Athens, Greece, in 1859, 1870, and 1875 sponsored by the businessman Evangelis Zappas, born and bred in Labovo, Albania, but of Greek descent.[1] These games were the first revival of the ancient Olympic Games in the modern era. Their success provided further inspiration[2] for William Penny Brookes in England, and the International Olympic Committee series from 1896.

Zappas' contribution in this process was vital: not only were the games hosted at his own initiative, he also provided the funds for the staging of the games, as well as for the construction of much-needed infrastructure, including the refurbishment of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the Games of 1870 and 1875. The same stadium would also host the first IOC Games of 1896,[3] the 1906 Intercalated Games, and archery and the marathon finish at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zappas_Olympics

P.S. Many thanks to Stud for helping me come across all above information by posting the challenge about ancient Cypriots participating or not to the ancient Olympics. My research on that subject brought me to this.

Thank you Stud.

Sorry Jerry.

[Get Real!]

The modern Olympics British Myth.

Here’s another British myth for you to ponder over...

Final positions:

03 Great Britain
32 Turkey
69 Cyprus
75 Greece

[kimon07]

The modern Olympics British Myth.

Here’s another British myth for you to ponder over...

Final positions:

03 Great Britain
32 Turkey
69 Cyprus
75 Greece

Derailing the thread as usual are we?

[Jerry]

Kimon07, I don’t know why you have revived this topic, are you a pedant by nature?
I resent your “he lied” reference to my post.

This is a direct quote from Catherine Beale’s book; “Brookes went on to stage Britain’s first National Olympian Games at the Crystal Palace, London in 1866 and, most importantly, made contact with the Greeks in the 1850s. Over the ensuing decades he repeatedly urged them to revive their ancient games. Coubertain went to Much Wenlock in October 1890 (up to which point he had never publicly uttered the words “Olympic Games” except in derision) and saw the games for himself. Less than two years later he had decided to revive international Olympic Games, and within four years he had founded the IOC”

And here’s another quote from Jonathan Edwards who wrote the Foreword to the book ”But Brookes had a dream, a single idea which burned fiercely inside him: to establish an Olympic-styled Games where international athletes would compete , and which would have the benefit of creating friendship and unity among all nations.”


You may also wish to know that Brookes studied in Padua,(“ effectively the university of Venice”) in 1830. From Catherine Beale’s book “Of most relevance to Brookes Olympic future was the fact that there were close links between Padua and Greece owing to Venice’s former possession of several Greek territories.” and “The Greeks received immense sympathy from western Europe, where classical Greece had exerted such a strong influence since the 18th century Enlightenment” and “such supporters were known as Philhellenes. a label that Coubertain , among others, was to apply to Penny Brookes”

Kimon07, A person more fair minded and intelligent than you would credit Penny Brookes, Evangelis Zappas and Coubertain with the establishment of the MODERN Olympic games. Had you bothered to read my post properly you would see I wrote “may never have been revived “ not “would never have been revived”

[kimon07]

Kimon07, I don’t know why you have revived this topic, are you a pedant by nature?
I resent your “he lied” reference to my post.

This is a direct quote from Catherine Beale’s book;

There was no link to her in your relevant post. But now that you mention her all I have to say is that what she supports contradicts even your initial link.

Kimon07, A person more fair minded and intelligent than you would credit Penny Brookes, Evangelis Zappas and Coubertain with the establishment of the MODERN Olympic games. Had you bothered to read my post properly you would see I wrote “may never have been revived “ not “would never have been revived”

Didn't notice any reference to Zappas in your initial post (meaning your words). I suppose the omission was purely accidental. Maybe YOU should bother to read YOUR own post and YOUR link more carefully as well as the wiki reference of my post. Then you would find that Queen (viceroy of Greece) Amalia, Zappas and Coubertain did the trick of reviving the Olympics to be conducted on a four-year basis initially in Greece, while Brookes's "bucolic" activities were of a topic/ British significance. Zappas Olympics stoped when they became international. Brookes found out about the Zappas Olympics by an article in a British news paper, according to your initial link, for which I must thank you warmly. Case Closed.

[Jerry]

Kimon07, I don’t know why you have revived this topic, are you a pedant by nature?
I resent your “he lied” reference to my post.

This is a direct quote from Catherine Beale’s book;

There was no link to her in your relevant post. But now that you mention her all I have to say is that what she supports contradicts even your initial link.

Kimon07, A person more fair minded and intelligent than you would credit Penny Brookes, Evangelis Zappas and Coubertain with the establishment of the MODERN Olympic games. Had you bothered to read my post properly you would see I wrote “may never have been revived “ not “would never have been revived”

Didn't notice any reference to Zappas in your initial post (meaning your words). I suppose the omission was purely accidental. Maybe YOU should bother to read YOUR own post and YOUR link more carefully as well as the wiki reference of my post. Then you would find that Queen (viceroy of Greece) Amalia, Zappas and Coubertain did the trick of reviving the Olympics to be conducted on a four-year basis initially in Greece, while Brookes's "bucolic" activities were of a topic/ British significance. Zappas Olympics stoped when they became international. Brookes found out about the Zappas Olympics by an article in a British news paper, according to your initial link, for which I must thank you warmly. Case Closed.

No apology for saying "he lied" then? If you didn't notice the title of the thread was "The Games Have Come Home". I focused on Dr Penny Brookes because at the time I was reading about him in "Born out of Wenlock"

As to your reference to the newspaper article here's another quote from Catherine Beales book "It was probably Brookes who fired off the news to Eddowes Shrewsbury Journal. It reported on Wednesday 6 October 1858 that the games would be held in an ancient stadium that was still in a very perfect state of presevation".

I suggest you invest £12.99 in "Born out of Wenlock", Catherine Beale goes into great detail about the links between Brookes, Coubertain, Zappas, the Olympic idea and Greek revival. Come back when you have read and understood the book, its a more reliable source of what actually happened than Wiki crap or the link you so warmly thanked me for.