Athletics of To-Day for Women

106 Athletics of To-day for Women On the opening day of the Games there was one amusing incident. The gateman at the Amsterdam Stadium was one of those Casabianca individuals who are given to interpreting orders all too literally. Through his crass stupidity the French team did not take part in the Parade of Nations, and I must admit to a sneaking regard for the French sportsman who is said to have presented the over-zealous official with a thick:. ear. Rumour has it that this gateman also d nied Lady/H ath ad1nission, because, although she possessed her judge's badge, she had mislaid her ticket. That resourceful sportswoman, however, fetched her light aeroplane and wa seen circling over the tadium, into which she dropped a note to the effect that if she was not promised immediate admission she would land within the arena. And, as is her wont, she had her way. Kinuye Hitomi, the only wmnan in th very fficicnt Japanese team, was one of the distinctive personalities of the great Parad of Nations, but the outstanding figure of all in that wond rful cer n1ony was Miss Radzulyte, th little Lithuanian runn r, who bore the standard of her country, a privil ge no other girl njo Tcd, whiJ behind her strode a burly male athlete carrying the Lithuanian flag. Thi girl's rav n-black hair wa b un ' ith a ban eau f the national colours, and upon the br ast of h r white singlet blaz d the y llow, green, and scarlet of a big Lithuanian badge, while her slim, bronzed legs were clad in bright green silk short . It is strange how figures and incidents stand out in one's memory after an Olympiad is ov r. I have attended five lebrations of the lympic Games, and both of the Inter– national Ladies' Championship , and distinctive figure stands out from each. After Amsterdarn I think I shall rememb r be t that Lithuanian girl ; the Poli h Discus throw r, Halinaa Konopacka, a t ll, slim, almost recian figure, poised at th edge of the ircl , the smile of triumph on her featur s, as she watched h r discus soar out to a n w 'V orld' r cord (I ictnr 140)-a very harming figure in h r