Week 1 Storytelling: The Olympic Candlestick Hurdler

“JACK, be nimble,
And, Jack, be quick;
And, Jack, jump over
The candlestick.”

Those were the last words Jack heard before he took his place on the starting line. Three seconds and one gun shot later and Jack was bolting around the track hurdling over lit candlesticks. The only things standing in the way of Jack and an 1896 Olympic gold medal were a 500 foot stretch of candlesticks to hurdle and 12 other athletes. But Jack had been preparing his whole life for this moment.

Jack grew up a poor boy living and working on his family’s sheep farm outside of London. His family never thought he would amount to much, and at times he didn’t either. Jack was kicked out of every school he went to, he was just too ornery, and for a while it seemed he was destined to be nothing more than a sheep farmer.

But one day when he was out in the pasteur, Jack’s favorite sheep, Bessi, escaped under the fence. Jack took off after her but Bessie kept going and she led him closer to town.

On the edge of town, finally, Jack was gaining on her. But as Bessie ran aimlessly through town she bumped into people and knocked over things. It was too late for Jack to stop so he hurdled boxes, barrels, and bales of hay. By now the whole town heard the ruckus and people had stepped outside to see what all the commotion was about. One of the men who left his desk was Walter Bailey, a former Olympic athlete and now an Olympic recruiter.

Bailey saw Jack making haste of every object in his way, and even the sheep seemed to glance back in amazement. Jack took one final leap and he landed on top of Bessie. He finally had her and little did he know he also had the attention of the man who would change his life.

Jack put a rope around Bessie and led her home. 

Later that day, Jack heard a knock at the front door. Bailey was on the front porch. Bailey told Jack he saw his little chase earlier that day and thought the kid had real athletic potential. He invited him to come down to the town track the next day to run with some other boys. 

That day Jack was introduced to hurdling- an Olympic event involving running and simultaneously jumping over different sizes of lit candlesticks. Jack was a natural at clearing the candlesticks in front of him.



Jack jumping over a candlestick at the 1896 Athens Olympics. Source: Jack

He started to go to the track every day to practice the hurdles and his performances drew crowds. The town was in awe of the once ornery farm boy who seemed to be on his was to athletic stardom.

A few years passed and Jack was old enough, and practiced enough, to enter the Olympic trials.

At no surprise to him or to Bailey, who had become Jack's coach and mentor, he qualified for the 1896 Olympics, leaving his local competitors in the dust.

His family accompanied him to the Olympic Games in Athens that year and they took their place in the stands. Jack waited all day for his event to be called, finally, at 4 p.m. it was time.

As he did before every meet, Bailey rubbed Jacks shoulders and said to him one inspiring phrase:

“JACK, be nimble,
And, Jack, be quick;
And, Jack, jump over
The candlestick.”

Author's Note: As you can see, this nursery rhyme was rather short and left a lot to be wondered about Jack and the candlestick. My first thought was why is he jumping over a candlestick and why is someone telling him how to do it? This led me to the idea of a coach and the candlestick as a hurdle. Candlesticks are somewhat outdated items that are not as popular in homes today, which made me think it would have had to be an event or a game played a century or so ago. Then also the Olympic games are coming up this summer so it seemed fitting to make the story of an Olympic event that happened in the past. Lastly, I added the back story of how Jack got to the Olympics and this moment in his life. I did this because I think the back story completes the picture and makes it a feel good story. I chose the image because it reflected Jack jumping over a candlestick. Some action as odd as that may be hard for people to imagine so now they don’t have to. My goal was simply to create a really enjoyable story. Also, if were being honest, I recently read “Unbroken” and loved it; I made this story kind of similar to the one in that book.

Bibliography: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Jack, Be Nimble" in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897).