Celebrating Olympism

326

In 1833 a leading Greek poet, Panagiotis Soutsos published a poem in which the ghost of the philosopher, Plato, appeared asking the new government of Greece:
“Where are your marble statues?
Where are your Olympic Games?”
Thereafter, in 1835, Soutsos felt compelled to write the Greek government appealing for the revival of the Olympic Games. He wrote again in 1842 making the same appeal.
In 1856, Evangelis Zappas, an old Greek war veteran living in Romania, wrote the King of Greece offering to pay for the revival of the Olympic Games in Greece.
Responding to the different appeals an edition of the revived Olympic Games was announced for 1859, advertised as an Industrial Agricultural and Athletics Olympics with an offer of cash prizes for the winners. This activity was eventually held in Athens in the city square now called, Koumoundourou.
Meanwhile, in England, W P Brookes began an annual athletics contest that he referred to as the Olympian Meet organized by The Wenlock Olympic Committee. The Meet was later called the Much Wenlock Olympic Games.
Later Brookes reorganized his institution to be known as the Much Wenlock Olympian Society, in which de Coubertin enrolled.
Interestingly, de Coubertin is recorded as having entered into discussions with Brookes when he was anxious about establishing the Modern Olympic Movement.
It is unfortunate that most of the writers of the Modern Olympic Movement fail to chronicle the others who were instrumental in maintaining discourse on the reestablishment of the Olympic Games. Too many have focused solely on de Coubertin.
History seems to suggest that even when de Coubertin called for the meeting in the Sorbonne in 1894 he originally advised the invited sports leaders that it was a meeting to discuss athletics. It was while the meeting was in progress that he apparently switched to the subject of the reestablishment of the Olympic Games.
Once the meeting agreed to the Modern Olympic Games it was necessary to establish an appropriate structure. Thus the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established and so the Olympic Movement as we know it today got started.