The modern Olympic Games had a forerunner, the Wenlock Olympian Games, held in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England.

On 25 February 1850 the Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society (WARS) resolved to establish a class called The Olympian Class. The secretary of the class and driving force behind the Wenlock Olympian Games was Dr William Penny Brookes The first meeting was held at Much Wenlock racecourse on 22–23 October 1850 and the first Games were a mixture of athletics and traditional country sports. In 1859 Wenlock Olympian Class sent £10 to Athens as a prize for the best runner in the Long Foot Race at the Olympic Games which was held in November that year – open only to Greek-speaking athletes. The Wenlock Prize, the largest prize on offer was won by Petros Velissarios of Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire, one of the first international Olympians.

In November 1860, the Wenlock Olympian Class separated from WARS and changed its name to the Wenlock Olympian Society.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin visited the Olympian Society in 1890, which held a special festival in his honour. He was inspired by Dr Brookes and went on to establish the International Olympic Committee. Brookes was named as an honorary delegate at the 1894 Sorbonne Congress at which the IOC was established.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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17 Comments

David Holmes

I used to drive through Much Wenlock regularly to a customer who told me about the games. Nothing like local knowledge.

Player

Knew the answer but not all the history behind it

dmarkc

Congratulations on the straightforward question.

Howard Groopman

I was leaning false, but it was so specific, I had to say true. And it did specify modern Olympics, which didn't begin until 1896.

mapiferuk

Like many non British around here I had never hear of it, I only learnt about it while volunteer at the 2012 Olympic Games. Good trivia and explanation

Mark Wheeless

Informative, but way too many details to be false.

Ken Putnam

Plums, No.o e EVER said they were

Bob Gorby

Another forerunner: the ancient Olympic Games

Plums

Perhaps the French weren't the forerunners of the concept of the Olympic games?

carens

I thought this was a good question and the synopsized answer both interesting and informative. Glad I got the right answer.

deborahpmercer

Good question. Wenlock was the mascot of the 2012 London Olympics, with Manderville (named after Stoke Manderville hospital where sport for the disabled was pioneered) the mascot of the Paralympics.