Prologue: An Indifferent Beginning

• Published in: International journal of the history of sport Vol. 28; no. 5; pp. 625 - 647
• Main Author: Llewellyn, Matthew P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.04.2011
• DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2011.554177
• ISSN: 0952-3367

Introduces a special issue of "The International Journal of the History of Sport" entitled "Rule Britannia Nationalism, Identity and the Modern Olympic Games". The issue presents a re-interpretation of British Olympic history, countering the late-20th century and early-21st century "tradition" of British Olympism which depicts Britain as an early epicentre of Olympic fervour. The essays trace the failure of the British Olympic Association (BOA) in the period from its birth in 1905 to the 1930s to convince the British public, the British government and most of the British press to invest in the notion that the Olympics represented a platform from which the founding nation of global sports culture could reanimate the energy of the British Empire. This prologue surveys the origins of the modern Olympic revival, led by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, and British involvement in and reactions to Games held in Athens (1896), Paris (1900), and St Louis (1904), leading to the formation of the BOA by a small group of politically Conservative English elites in May 1905. The BOA's nation-building efforts were to face strong opposition in the form of political squabbling between the constituent parts of the British Isles, the rising political independence of the dominions, and staunch British public and governmental aversion to the Olympic Games. (Quotes from original text)