INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

way of life: "the chief support came for the movement aimed at
monitoring, controlling, reshaping, delegitimizing and where
necessary forcefully suppressing popular cultural forms deemed as
dysfunctional to social order" (Hargreaves 1986: 21). If one considers
the English tradition of participating in various sports such a situation
had to result in the development of a movement opposing the abovementioned
ideas. Firstly, sport began to be recognized in public
schools as the means of improvement of the overall physical condition
and, more importantly, as a way of teaching responsibility and
cooperation: "it taught co-operation or competition, it trained
character; promoted qualities of leadership; was necessary for mental,
as well as physical health; brought a sense of 'body awareness', and
trained essential skills" (Brailsford 1969: 245). Simultaneously a
similar attitude to sport began to be formed in other circles of society.
Dr William Penny Brookes was the person responsible for
reviving the Olympic ideas in the 19 th century England. He combined
the ancient Greek tradition, which he studied at school with the
earliest English traditions in following the Greeks, such as Robert
Dover's Games, with the literary descriptions of numerous English
games and pastimes taken from Joseph Strutt's works and with his
own belief that sport was an essential part of every human existence.
The first step was to establish the Wenlock Agricultural Reading
Society in 1841. A few years later in 1850 he created the Olympian
Class of the Society. Its aim was:
promotion of the moral, physical and intellectual
improvement of the Inhabitants of the Town and
Neighbourhood of Wenlock and especially of the Working
Classes, by the engagement of out-door recreation and by the
award of prizes annually at public meetings for skill in
Athletic exercises and proficiency in intellectual and
industrial attainments (Mullins 1986: 13 after Wenlock
Olympian Society 1 st Minute Book: 2)
Following this declaration, the first games took place on 22 nd
October 1850 and the Olympian Class acquired a new identity - it
became the Wenlock Olympian Society. "The programme of the
Wenlock games was to become more consciously 'Olympian' as the
- 245 -