Olympic Torch arrives at Much Wenlock

The torch relay may have started in Greece, the spiritual home of the Olympics, but if we’re being literal the relay should really have begun in the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock.

In 1850 a surgeon by the name of William Penny-Brookes, a champion of physical education, organized a series of competitive athletic events, thus becoming the father of the modern Olympic Games.

Although many people recognize Athens 1894 as the beginning to the Modern Olympiad, Penny-Brookes’ legacy lives on through one of the 2012 Olympic mascots and today the torch passes through the birthplace of the Olympics, and the sports fans of Twitter haven’t been slow in letting the rest know.

Much Wenlock is buzzing for the arrival of the Olympic Flame and rightly so as, without William Penny-Brookes and the first modern Olympians, London 2012 may never have been happening.

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