Olympian flame alive and well in Shropshire
The Olympian flame is alive and well… in Shropshire. And it’s proving a real star attraction!
It’s not everyday that the world of Harry Potter meets ancient Olympic tradition, but that’s exactly what happened in the picturesque Shropshire market town of Much Wenlock.
Renowned British actress Miriam Margolyes – who again reprises her role as Professor Sprout in the final Harry Potter blockbuster movie premiering this July – has helped launch a new Olympian sculpture in the quiet rural town nestling amidst rolling countryside.
Sculptor Adrian Reynolds has created the design featuring the Olympic torch emerging from Shropshire on a world map at the town’s Gaskell Recreation Ground and Miriam, who was visiting Shropshire, is pictured with the new sculpture.
Why Shropshire, 150 miles away from the site of the London Games?
As unlikely as it may sound Much Wenlock is internationally recognised as providing the origins of the modern international Olympic Games. When the gold medals are handed out in London in 2012, it will partly be thanks to the Wenlock Olympian Games – staged almost every summer in Much Wenlock since 1850, attracting athletes from all across the UK.
Local resident Dr William Penny Brookes first founded the Wenlock Olympian Society and The Wenlock Olympian Games "for the promotion of moral, physical and intellectual improvement" by providing an arena for competition in sport and the arts.
A visitor to the 1890 Olympian Games was Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the acknowledged founder of the modern Olympic Games, who later wrote "and of the Olympic Games, which modern Greece has not yet revived, it is not a Greek to whom one is indebted, but rather Dr W. P. Brookes".
Today, the Modern Olympic Games are held every four years. But the Wenlock Olympian Games still take place every July, with the 125th Games taking place 3-11 July 2011.
For further details, visit: wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk
For all other details about Shropshire, visit: visitshropshire.com
