Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.

Follow us online: Facebook Twitter Flickr

National Museums Liverpool Blog - 100 days to go until the Games begin!

 Wednesday, April 18, 2012

100 days to go until the Games begin!


Wednesday 18 April 12

Today marks 100 days until the Olympics, and as the Games creep ever closer, we’re looking back at some of the medal winners who have come out of Merseyside since the first international Olympic Games held in the modern era.

The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, yielded a bronze medal winner from Liverpool in the form of Konstantinos Paspatis, who actually won his medal for Greece.

Held in the Panathinaiko Stadium, Athens was unanimously chosen as the host city, as Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games and therefore seemed most appropriate for the inaugural modern Games.

Konstantinos Paspatis, whose merchant grandparents settled in Liverpool in the mid-1800s, was born in Liverpool to this prosperous Greek family, and went onto win bronze for his forefathers’ country in 1896.

Paspatis, a tennis player, competed in both the men’s singles and doubles tournaments, and won his bronze medal in the singles when he defeated George Robertson of Great Britain and Ireland in the first round and fellow Greek Aristidis Akratopoulos in the second round.

He met eventual cold medalist John Pius in the semi finals, and since there was no playoff for third place, Paspatis and Momcsilló Tapavicza of Hungary are considered to share third.

Visit the Museum of Liverpool's Wondrous Place gallery to learn more about sport in the city.


Posted by Lucy | 18/04/2012 13:55   | Comments [0]

Posted in: museum of liverpool
Tagged with: sport

Post a comment

All comments require the approval of the site owner before being displayed.
Name
E-mail

Comment (HTML not allowed)  

Enter the code shown (prevents robots):

Live Comment Preview

By posting your comment you have agreed to the terms and conditions below

Terms & Conditions

National Museums Liverpool welcomes your comments. All comments are moderated and will only be published if they adhere to the following standards. The editors reserve the right not to publish comments which they deem inappropriate:

  1. Our Maritime Archives and Library deals with enquiries relating to all aspects of Liverpool's maritime history including ships, passengers, seafarers, shipping and maritime companies. Their web pages describe the information they hold and how to get in touch, along with useful research guides on popular subjects such as tracing seafaring or emigrant ancestors. Please do not submit requests for this type of information as comments on this blog.
  2. Specific enquiries, as opposed to comments on blog posts, should be submitted using our contact system. Please note that we do not provide valuations.
  3. Posts must be text only and under 1000 characters (including spaces). Html code, links or multimedia are not permitted.
  4. We will aim (but do not guarantee) to publish approved comments within 72 hours although there may be delays over weekends and during public holidays.
  5. Please do not post anything that is libellous, abusive, obscene, prejudiced or unlawful.
  6. Do not contravene any rights to privacy (such as personal contact details), copyright or trademark legislation.
  7. Please do not spam or post commercial promotional information.
  8. By posting you agree that you are wholly responsible for the content that you post. Although the blog comments will be moderated National Museums Liverpool will publish comments in the good faith that they comply with the law.
  9. By posting your comment you agree that it may be reproduced by National Museums Liverpool online or in print without compensation.