Monday, December 12, 2011

Olympic Games - Forerunners to Modern Games

First significant attempt to emulate the Ancient Olympic Games was the L'Olympiade de la République, a national Olympic festival held annually from 1796 to 1798 in Revolutionary France. L'Olympiade de la République included several disciplines from the ancient Greek Olympics. The 1796 Games of L'Olympiade de la République also marked the introduction of the metric system into sport.

Zappas Olympics (Greek: Ζάππειες Ολυμπιάδες), or simply called Olympics (Greek: Ολύμπια, Olympia) at the time, were a series of athletic events sponsored by the Greek businessman Evangelis Zappas and staged in 1859, 1870, and 1875 in Athens, Greece. The Zappas Olympics were the first revival of the Ancient Olympic Games in the modern era.

In 1850, an Olympian Class was started by Dr William Penny Brookes at Much Wenlock, in Shropshire, England. In 1859, Dr Brookes changed the name to Wenlock Olympian Games. This annual sports festival continues to this day. The Wenlock Olympian Society was founded by Dr. Brookes on 15 November 1860.

Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Liverpool Grand Olympic Festival. Devised by John Hulley and Charles Melly, in cooperation with Dr Brookes, the games of Grand Olympic Festival were elitist in nature since only Gentlemen could compete. Some of the Gentlemen brought their coaches with them. The programme for Athens 1896 had similarities to that of the Liverpool Olympics, but that was to be expected since Dr. Brookes had incorporated events from the 1859 Athens Olympics programme at Much Wenlock and had contributed to the programme at Liverpool.

In 1865, John Hulley, Dr. Brookes and E.G. Ravenstein founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool. National Olympian Association was the forerunner of the British Olympic Association. National Olympian Association's articles of foundation provided the framework for the International Olympic Charter. In 1866, a national Olympic Games in Great Britain was organized at London's Crystal Palace.

Olympic

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