John Bryant

Coe’s lordly challenge

Britain can look back with pride and nostalgia to the great Olympic Games of the past.  London in 1908, and the so-called ‘austerity Games’ of 1948, were great triumphs. Against the odds of time and money, these were Games to savour — etched in the memory with flickering black-and-white images of hope. 

This is the third time that London has held the Games (no other city can match this) but London has bid for them only once — for the 2012 Games. The Olympics of 1908 and 1948 came to London because no-one else wanted them.

Bizarrely, and this may tell us much about Britain’s sporting and class-bound heritage, all three of London’s Games have been masterminded by lords. The latest of the trio is Lord Coe, Baron Coe of Ranmore.

In 1908, Lord Desborough, the perfect Edwardian sportsman — cricketer, sculler, fencer and huntsman — masterminded the Games in just two years when a near bankrupt Rome pulled out following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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