THE MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES BEFORE THEY BECAME MODERN.

The watch in my car showed seven in the evening. Time for a place to spend the night. Along the motorway its rather difficult to discover some hotel or a B&B. After Shrewsbury I left the main road. My experiences concerning smaller places were rather good – both charming settings and the possibility of finding a vacant bed.

     At random I chose the road towards Kidderminster. Whatever minor road was to prefer to the motorway south to Ludlow, as long as even this minor road brought me southwards. In position for my next day search for Castell Gwyn - "The White Castle" – in the Abergavenny area in Wales. Last time I drove around among an undefined number of ancient castles and fortresses in Wales, I didn’t manage to discover this ruin. Now I had made up my mind to find it  - whatever time I had to spend to realize the adventure. A bed close to the border and the area I was to investigate, was definitely an advantage.

     The first inn awaited me outside a small place called Cound. "The Riverside Inn" had an idyllic site along one of the many curves of  Englands’s longest river, The Severn, on its way to the Bristol canal. Huge parking space, but also quite a few cars...

     And quite right – unfortunately I was half-an-hour late for their last vacancy. But if I continued...

     The young receptionist held in. If I could just wait some minutes, he’d make a call for me? But he was also in charge of the pub and two of his clients waited for their pints.

     The recetion was close to the main door, and the bar formed an angle with the reception. In front of the bar was a rustic restaurant. At the ende of the restaurant there were large windows, showing people sitting outside with their meals and beers. This might have been a charming...

    Suddenly he was back, the young one. Called a number on the phone while he told me ”there’ll be a room now that the games were almost finished". Games? Did he want to put me into some playground?

    - Of course, I'll tell'im...

    The cal ended and by his smile I understood there was a bed waiting for me. In "Much Wenloch". But I had no idea of what more that was waiting in Much Wenlock...

Much Wenlock was a small town. But the hotel – enormous! For a small town. With a parking area close to some Sainsbury center.    

     There was a room for me, and they served evening meal until nine o’clock. So I went out to fetch my travelling bag from the car.

     When I was about to return inside, I saw a banner above  the  door of the house opposite side of the road: "Wenloch Olympian Society - OLYMPIAN GAMES - 5th -21st JULY". 

     What? Had someone forgot to pull down some PR for the Olympic Games in London two years ago? I brought up the issue when I entered the reception.

     Oh! Didn’t I know the Olympian games arranged every year in Much Wenloch?

     Olympian games – every year?

     A huge hotel in Much Winloch was built to lodge participants for the games. At this moment most participants had left since this was the last week of competitions. Only the competitions of gliding (!) were still going on. They were ending their “battles” on a local air field at Church Stretton.

     Not many guests left now, but some of them – and the manager – were eager to tell me the strange story of the modern Olympian games in i Much Wenlock. I was  up until late – consuming quite a few pints of "1664".

     The reason for the games of Much Wenloch to cal themselves "olympian" depended upon the fact that the first modern Olympic games stated exactly here in Much Wenlock! 

     In 1850 a local doctor, William Penny-Brooks, introduce "physical education" in the schools, although he had a broader vision. He wanted youngsters to compete against each-other – not only in the area, but against young people from all parts of the country in an old-fashioned Olympic manner. This happened! Only ten years later was the first Olympian games arranged including the traditional marathon as the main discipline giving the winner the Wenloch Prize. These "games" were not only inspiration for young athletes, but the idea from Much Wenlock also fascinated Baron Pierre de Coubertin – and we all know what happened next. He created in 1894 the IOC, the international olympic comitee. Unfortunately the doctor so dedicated to sport died the year before the first modern olympic games was held in Athen 1896. But the games in Much Wenloch were alowed to be called "olympian", although not the use of the symbol – the rings.

     William Penny-Brooks and Much Wenlock are not forgotten – even if  I believe a lot more than me were/are unfamiliar with this event. When the modern Olympic games were to celebrate their hundred anniversary in 1994, Juan Antonio Samaranch – who at that time was in charge of the IOC, arrived in Much Wenloch to venerate the doctor who manufactured the idea. While laying down a wreath on the doctor’s tomb, Samaranch said that "Penny-Brooks is the reel founder of the modern Olympic games".

    The annual olympian games i Much Wenlock consists of several traditional competitions as athletics, fencing, riding, footbal (5-a-side for participants and public!), triathlon and of course marathon... Among competitions that do not belong to the ordinary olympics there are (apart from gliding) golf, boule, cricket (of course) and biathlon for the young. Svimming and running on two different days. This year (2014) they had also introduced volleyball for the 11 years. The main part of the participants are children and youth, and there are no qualifications whatever to participate. Several countries are sending participants, even Norway. Norwegians had participated in something called road race. Swedes had tried a kind of "group golf". This years participants had also come from Germany, Belgium and New Zeeland.    

     The next day I had to do a trip around the site of Much Wenloch. The center was rather charming, but in spite of my encounter with the birth of modern olympic games, I was eager to find my welsh ruin. That’s why I didn’t sit down with pencil and paper to make some sketches of the old City Hall with its market. I simply had a photo.

    I must add to the story that I did find “my” old ruin in Wales. After two hours of searching – and more reverse driving than I’ve done all together during my 50 years behind the wheel. What are called "roads" in the welsh countryside, are as broad as the side mirrors of the car – on both sides. Happening to come up against another car – or a tractor, isn’t the easiest way of keeping your temper at ease. But in Much Wenloch I had met the Olympic spirit. A spirit quite necessary to keep when I lost the ”competition” of who got the shortest reverse to a place to meet… When we both had the Olympic spirit of discussion – it was like winning or loosing in sports. And everyone in those narrow passages were sportsman’s like. Maybe they all were acquainted to Much Wenloch.

Yours

Thor Thorstensen