How much we have changed

"We pride ourselves on being ...the first athletic nation. We have many assets that should make us so. Our public school games are, one and all, of incalculable help towards the many assets demanded in an international competition. By favour of these, the youngster, unknown to himself, is putting in his ground work, in conjunction with a national temperament that has, in the past pulled off big things. Pluck, patience, enterprise, equanimity in loss, restraint in victory, suppleness of limb, are all indirectly taught the schoolboy, and if he can be kept up to the mark set by all public schools, no more can, or should be, expected of him. He is undergoing the fullest training that any healthy lad should be subjected to."

Yes, this is Britain, as described in Andrews H. Training for the track, field and road with some hints on health and fitness. 1st ed. London: Stanley Paul and Co, 1920