Midland History Pub Date : 2021-05-07 , DOI: 10.1080/0047729x.2021.1921430 Derek Martin 1
ABSTRACT
The modern sport of athletics emphasizes its ‘Olympian’ ideals and its origins in the public schools, universities and amateur clubs of the late Victorian era. Ironically for a sport that has so successfully commercialized itself and boasts many highly paid professionals, its debt to its predecessor, pedestrianism, the name for running for money, has been relatively neglected. Pedestrianism was a major sporting interest and an abiding part of popular culture in the nineteenth century. This paper, using the example of the West Midlands, traces how the sport adapted itself to urbanization and the leisure industry, encompassed disciplines as varied as sprints and walks of a thousand miles, how it was involved in the growth of the specialist sporting press, pioneered sports arenas and, not least, provided opportunities for female athletes.
中文翻译:
一项被遗忘的运动:西米德兰兹郡的行人
摘要
现代田径运动强调其“奥林匹克”理想及其起源于维多利亚时代晚期的公立学校、大学和业余俱乐部。具有讽刺意味的是,对于一项如此成功地将自身商业化并拥有许多高薪专业人士的运动来说,它对前身行人的债务,即为金钱奔跑的名称,却相对被忽视了。步行是 19 世纪一项主要的体育运动,也是流行文化的一部分。本文以西米德兰兹郡为例,追溯了这项运动如何适应城市化和休闲产业,涵盖的学科多种多样,如短跑和千英里步行,它如何参与专业体育媒体的发展,开创了运动场,尤其是为女运动员提供了机会。