The Olympic Games

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are finally here, after being delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. From Ancient Greece to when it was reborn in 1896, the tournament has nearly 3,000 years of history. Sports historian, Professor Martin Polley from De Monfort University, joins Dan on the podcast to tell the, sometimes surprising, story of the competition. How did it become the international sporting event it is today? How have the games affected global politics and diplomacy? And how is Shakespeare connected to its history?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, welcome to Dan's nose history here to the Olympics are beginning.
0:03.3	What a journey it's been.
0:04.2	The Olympics are beginning under circumstances that no of us would wish.
0:08.2	The local population is experiencing a surge in COVID.
0:11.0	There is COVID amongst the athletes,
0:13.1	but they're prevented from training, they're isolating.
0:15.6	It is so brutal and compared to the fun and excitement and passion and
0:20.5	hedonism of Olympics past, it's a bit of a pale reflection, but we're still
0:24.1	going to enjoy it.
0:24.6	We're still in love it, sport or win in the end, I'm sure.
0:27.3	And like everything, the Olympics has got a big history.
0:30.0	I mean, obviously it does.
0:30.9	The Olympics was a huge festival, the ancient Greece of a centuries.
0:35.4	The Olympic Games would take place in that inspired post enlightenment thinkers
0:39.6	in the West to try and revive them.
0:41.8	Well, in this podcast, you'll be hearing all about how that process happened.
0:44.7	We've got Professor Martin Poley, he's the director of the International Center for Sports,
0:49.6	History and Culture.
0:50.7	He's a professor of history.
0:52.4	He's at De Montfort University and he was with me.
0:55.0	Together, we talked about the history of the modern Olympic Games, where did it come from?
0:59.6	The answer is a lot more interesting than you might think, fascinating,
	...

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