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Sport and the British

Lucy Lunt

Sara Conkey

Garth Brameld

Sport and the British: Episode 1: The Rise of Olympism

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The Rise of Olympism

Episode 1

Episode 1: The Rise of Olympism

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Sport and the British, The Rise of Olympism

Claire visits Rugby School, which can claim to be the birthplace of the modern Olympics.

Clare Balding visits Rugby School, which can claim to be the birth place of the modern Olympic games.

CLARE BALDING charts how Britain has shaped sport and sport has shaped the British.Apart from the English language itself, the invention of modern sport has been our major cultural legacy to the rest of the world.In this thirty part narrative history series with the help of the academic team from the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at De Montfort University, Clare looks at the unique and vital role sport has played, and continues to play, in our national life. As we gear up for the 2012 games, in this first programme she looks at the birth of the modern olympics movement. While it was inspired by the Greeks and revived by the French nobleman, Pierre de Coubertin, his motivation came from a provincial English public school. It was while visiting Rugby and contemplating the work of its visionary headmaster, Thomas Arnold, that de Coubertin came to the conclusion that inferior physical fitness in young Frenchmen had played a part in their defeat by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. If they played more sport at school, he thought, the outcome might have been different. With Richard Holt and Tony Collins, Professors at the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at De Montfort University, Clare discusses what lessons can be drawn from the games since 1896, in order to achieve success when they return to us this year.
The reader is Stuart McLoughlin.
Producer: Lucy Lunt.

BBC Radio 4 Extra

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Clare Balding charts how sport has shaped the British and how Britain has shaped sport

Clare Balding presents a 30-part series charting how sport has shaped the British and how Britain has shaped sport

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Episode 1: The Rise of Olympism

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