Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Growth of Modern Athletics 29 The second Olympiad took place at Paris in rgoo and, owing to bad organisation, was not a conspicuous success. Of the athletic honours, America carried off seventeen, Great Britain four, and France and Hungary one each. The third Olympiad was held at St. Louis, U.S.A., in the summer of 1904, and an immense programme was decided. The European nations were almost entirely unrepresented, and America won every one of the athletic events, except Slinging the 56lb. \Veight, which went to E . Desmarteau, of Canada. In rgo6 the Greeks, dissatisfied with the cosmopolitan character of the Games, decided to give the revival a more definitely Hellenic stamp and so instituted an additional series to be held at Athens in the middle of the quadrennial period. This meeting was held once and was a definite success, perhaps on account of the personal interest of the Grecian Royal Family and the presence of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and the Prince and Princess of Wales, but it has never been repeated, and indeed would prove too much of a drag upon the nations which already find sufficient difficulty in raising teams and the funds to send them to compete once in every four years at the orthodox celebrations of the Game . A further celebration, within the r gular Olympic cycle, took place in London, rgo8 . Marathon Day, July 24th, saw ass mbled at the Shepherd's Bush Stadium, the gr atest number of sp ctators that has ever attended an athletic sports meeting in Great ritain, the nearest approach to th rgo8 record being th occasion of the British Empire v. U.S.A. match at Stamford Bridge, London, on August r8th, rgz8, when 41,000 people were present. The next Olympiad was held at tockholm in rgrz. This constituted the best organised meeting that has yet taken place, and it was held at the most suitable stadium I have yet seen. In the Olympic Games proper at the Fourth Olympiad (London, rgo8), Great ritain scored twenty-five successes, including the victori s of R. Walk r, outh Africa, in the 100 metres, and R. Kerr, anada, in the zoo metres, while America