by The Laird o’Thistle
May 24 2012
On Thursday May 17 the Princess Royal, and several others, went to Athens to receive for Britain the newly kindled Olympic flame that will in due course light the cauldron that will illumine London and the games later this summer. The ceremony was held in the rain-bedewed Panathenaic Stadium in Athens where King George I of the Hellenes, Princess Anne’s great-grandfather, presided at the modern revival of the Olympics in 1896. No-nonsense she may be, but the very Mountbatten Princess had to have been keenly aware of where she was standing as she raised the torch to the sky, and then as she carried the safe-transport lantern from the stadium on the first stage of its journey to Great Britain. Once home, HRH also carried the flame onto British soil.
The Princess Royal is, without doubt, Olympic royalty. And it is not just because of her great-grandfather, either. She is a longtime member of the International Olympic Committee (since 1988), serves as President of the British Olympic Association, and is a former Olympian herself (Montreal, 1976). Anne is also the mother of an aspiring Olympian, as her daughter Zara still hopes to make the 2012 British team as an equestrienne. On May 24 Zara followed her mother as a torchbearer, too, as she carried the torch on horseback down the Cheltenham Racecourse to the cheers of thousands.
Anne is not alone among the descendants of George I of Greece to have participated in the Olympic movement. Former King Constantine II of Greece won a gold medal in sailing in 1960, and his sister Sofia (now Queen of Spain) was a reserve on the sailing team that year. Other royal relatives to compete in the Olympics were the late Olav V of Norway (gold in sailing, 1928), King Harald V of Norway (sailing, 1964, 1968, and 1972), King Juan Carlos of Spain (sailing, 1972), Princess Cristina of Spain (sailing, 1988), and Crown Prince Felipe of Spain (sailing 1992).
London itself has hosted the Olympics on two previous occasions, with keen royal interest. In 1908 King Edward VII, Princess Anne’s great-great-grandfather, presided at the first formal Opening Ceremonies in the modern Olympics. The marathon that year started at Windsor Castle, with the future Edward VIII and George VI looking on. In 1948 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Anne’s grandparents, opened the games at Wembley, with Princess Margaret, Queen Mary, and other members of the royal family in attendance. (The current Queen is not listed in the party, being pregnant with Prince Charles at the time, though both she and Prince Philip visited the games.) One of the cycling events that year was held in the Great Park at Windsor.
As portrayed in the movie CHARIOTS OF FIRE, the then Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) was in attendance at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He attended the Opening Ceremonies and participated in a variety of ceremonial and social events.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth II there have been five previous occasions in which either the Summer or Winter Olympics have occurred in her realms and territories. In 1956 the “summer” Olympics (with Opening Ceremonies on November 22) occurred for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, in Melbourne. In 1976 they were in Montreal, with the Queen of Canada present to formally open the games. (Princess Anne competed.) In 2000 the games were again in Australia, at Sydney. In 1988 Canada hosted the Winter Olympics in Calgary, and again in 2010 in Vancouver. In opening the 2012 games the Queen will gain the rare distinction of having personally opened two Olympic Games, and she or her personal representatives (Prince Phillip, and her Governors-General) will have opened a clear record of six games. (The only other 2-timers were Hitler for the Summer & Winter Olympics of 1936, and the late Emperor Hirohito of Japan for the Summer 1964 and Winter 1972 Olympics.)
Her Majesty also visited the 1956 Olympic equestrian events which were held in Stockholm, Sweden, due to Australian quarantine restrictions. One of her horses participated in those games, ridden by Bertie Hill as part of the gold-medal winning British team. While the Greek, Norwegian, and Spanish royals have concentrated on sailing, the Mountbatten-Windsor penchant has always been toward the horsey events.
Prince Phillip opened the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in the Queen’s behalf, at the start of his extensive world tour, and in various capacities, he has personally attended (at least) portions of the 1948, 1956, 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1984 Olympics. (Soon to turn 91, Prince Phillip is now one of only two living grandchildren of George I of the Hellenes, the other being his much younger cousin Prince Michael of Greece who was born in 1939.)
Barring a surprise such as happened at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, when Crown Prince Haakon Magnus was chosen to light the Olympic cauldron, it is not likely that the Princess Royal will figure prominently in the Opening Ceremonies in London on July 27. It will be her mother’s night at center stage. But Princess Anne’s devotion and contribution to the Olympic cause are without parallel, and the link is multiplied many times over as one looks to the heritage of the interrelated royal families of Greece, Britain, Norway, and Spain in particular. HRH’s particular connection via her father’s family made the event on May 17 particularly striking, but it is her own longstanding commitment and hard work that made it so fitting and meaningful.
Yours aye,
-Ken Cuthbertson