about the Digbeth O’Lympics
A short history of the Digbeth O’Lympics
When Beorma founded the first settlement adjacent to a crossing of the River Rea in the 7th century, the area was already widely known for competitive sports. Many artefacts of gladiatorial-style games have been recently unearthed during the ongoing redevelopment of the area. In fact while digging the foundations of the new Selfridges building, remarkably well preserved artefacts such as pugil sticks, oversized foam hands and a scorecard with such terrifying names as “Wolf”, “Hvnter”(sic), and “Rhino” were unearthed. These were carbon-dated to Roman times and are currently being held in the British Museum.
An annual sporting festival seems to have steadily grown in size over the following centuries until its pinnacle in 1581 when over three hundred participants entered. Unfortunately the event suffered a massive attendance drop the following year when ninety percent of the crowds arrived ten days after the festival had finished due to the change over to the Gregorian calendar.
Things were back on track however by the turn of the twentieth century, with Digbeth holding an alternative to the Modern Olympics. The highlight of the festival was the “Camp Hill Flyover” event. Participants would strip to their undergarments and launch themselves down Camp Hill on their fronts, taking off at a ramp placed outside the Old Crown. Distances achieved were then recorded and grazed skin compared. A record of 203 ft stood for over twenty years until the invention of Brylcreme at the local Chemico works in 1928. A liberal application of the cream to the body allowed respite from stripped skin and added lubrication, thus much higher distances were attained.
Unfortunately in 1937 after nine years of pomade build-up on the road surface, one competitor gained too much speed and embedded himself in the clock face of St Martin’s in the Bull Ring. The games were then disbanded, and have only been talked about in hushed tones in and around the local pubs of Digbeth ever since.
With London 2012 set to massage the country into mass hysteria, it was decided to revive the Ancient Digbeth O’Lympics