| 6. Last Lap |
The title of this section is a direct translation of the Latin motto of the Olympic Games, Altius, Citius, Fortius. This world-wide festival of the world's best sporting talent has been held every four years since it started in Athens in 1896. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French aristocrat is widely credited as being the father of the modern Olympic movement. What is less well known is that he developed his idea from a little known country doctor and JP, Dr William Penny-Brookes (1809 - 1896), who lived in the even more obscure Shropshire town of Much Wenlock.
As the town's doctor and magistrate, Penny-Brookes will no doubt have seen every aspect of unhealthy lifestyles; it's not just a modern problem. Therefore in 1841 he founded the Agricultural Reading Room to aid mutual improvement and enlightenment. As a spin-off from this, in 1850 he founded the Wenlock Olympian Class, " to promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood of Wenlock ". He based its activities and ideals on the ancient games held in Greece.
The first Games were held in 1850 amidst a great deal of pageantry, very much as today. As well as athletic sports, there were more traditional countryside pursuits, and fun events.
Penny-Brookes, along with a Mr Hulley from Liverpool and a German, Herr Ravenstein, developed the idea further, founding the National Olympian Association in 1865. This body organised a festival of athletics at Crystal Palace in South London. It was a great success.
In 1885, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the organiser of an International Congress on Physical Education, appealed for information on the Olympic Festival through the English newspapers. Penny Brookes responded. The young Baron visited the old doctor in Much Wenlock, and the Wenlock Games were held in his honour. The 27 year old de Coubertin was highly impressed. He and the 81 year old doctor worked closely together, developing their ideas further.
De Coubertin wrote, "" If the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survives today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr W P Brookes".
The first International Olympic Congress was held in 1894. Penny-Brookes, now aged 85, was getting old and in poor health; he could not attend. Four months before the modern games were held in 1896, Penny-Brookes died in Much Wenlock at the age of 87.
Even today, there is an annual festival of the Wenlock Olympian Society, which is based on a variety of athletic sports for all.
William Penny-Brookes did much else for the town, including bringing mains gas, the railway, and building the Guildhall. It's the building behind the cyclist.
Makes you proud to be British, what?
The context of the unit has been in sports. Much physics and engineering research goes on to produce ever better sports equipment, from the latest Hi-Tech (and ludicrously expensive) training shoes, to the blades and racing shells used in rowing. The performance of athletes is measured using physics principles. Much data are harvested and analysed using the laws of Physics.
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