Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpick Games

The original modern Olympic Games. Started in 1612, this carnival of sport, music and fun happens every year on Dover's Hill, Chipping Campden.

You may not realise it, but the modern Olympic movement has its historic roots in a small rural event in Gloucestershire, England - Robert Dover's Olimpick Games. In 2012, we celebrated the 400th anniversary of what are now often called the Cotswold Olimpicks. As part of their successful bid for the London 2012 Games, the British Olympic Association stated:

"An Olympic Games held in London in 2012 will mark a unique anniversary - it will be exactly 400 years from the moment that the first stirrings of Britain's Olympic beginnings can be identified."

“...this was the pre-dawn of the Olympic Movement, and the Cotswold Games began the historical thread in Britain that was ultimately to lead to the creation of the modern Olympics.”
— British Olympic Association

Tags: Event,Historical Place,Recreation & Fitness