15 November 2008
Teddy's Excellent Adventure: Edwin Flack
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Imagine an Olympic Games where you could just turn up of your own accord, and go in whatever event you felt like. No need for years of gruelling training; no need to qualify to represent your country. This is how a mild-mannered accountant called Edwin Flack did it, when he competed at the Athens Olympic Games of 1896.
Edwin Flack (Teddy to his friends) was Australia's original Olympian, the only Australian who competed at the first modern Olympic Games. He's also the only Australian to have won both the 800 metres and 1,500 metres running races.
In Athens, Teddy also competed in the tennis, and then went in the first-ever marathon, even though he'd never run more than 10 miles in his life. Teddy's adventure in Athens tells the story of how remarkably different were those first Games of 1896 from the huge Olympics of recent decades.
Publications
Title: Australia and the Olympic Games
Author: Harry Gordon
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Title: Olympics in Athens 1896
Author: Michael Llewellyn Smith
Publisher: Profile Books
Title: Edwin Flack: the Lion of Athens
Author: Peter Sweeney
Publisher: Peter Sweeney
Presenter
Richard Buckham
Producer
Amanda Smith
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