The 1924 Paris Olympics

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The last time Paris held the Olympic Games was 100 years ago in 1924.

More than 3,000 athletes from 44 nations took part, of which only 135 were women, in 17 sports.

Rachel Naylor goes through the BBC archive for interviews with two British medallists - the sprinter Harold Abrahams and the tennis player Kitty Godfree.

(Photo: Harold Abrahams winning gold at the Olympics in Paris, in 1924. Credit: Jewish Chronicle / Heritage Images / Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	He is Brian Cox.
0:02.8	Hello.
0:03.3	And he understands science.
0:05.3	I'm Robin Ince and I don't understand it quite so much.
0:09.0	Could it tell us something about the nature of matter?
0:11.3	Nope.
0:12.0	Okay, good.
0:14.2	Together we'll be joined by a collection of experts and non-expert guests.
0:18.6	What's going on?
0:19.8	Don't worry.
0:21.7	Taking a look at some of the most wonderful things
0:24.4	in the scientific world.
0:25.9	Science with Funny Bits, The Infinite Monkey Cage on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast with me Rachel Naylor from the BBC World Service. I'm taking you back a hundred years to the last time Paris hosted the Olympics.
0:45.0	I've been delving into the BBC Archives and listening to interviews with two British
0:49.8	medalists.
0:51.8	It's some enough. lists.
0:58.0	It's summer 1924, and 24-year-old sprinter, Harold Abrahams from Bedford in England
1:00.0	is getting ready for his second Olympic Games.
1:06.7	But compared to today's dedicated athletes, it wasn't all consuming.
1:11.6	As Harold told the BBC in 1968, he trained hard but not too hard.
1:15.6	I did much more training than the average athlete in my day. I trained what three days a week. I mean I don't approve at all of this slogging this
	...

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