Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Growth of Modern Athletics 37 section of the ninth Olympiad was absolutely free from un– toward incident and that the friendli st spirit between all nations was the keynote of this particular celebration. There is no doubt in my mind, as I pen these words, that we have progressed so far along th road of athletic achieve– ment that our for fathers of the arly sixties would stand no chance at a mod rn champion hip meeting. But, perhaps best of all, it is equally clear that the whole world is working slowly but sur ly towards that id al of Baron Pi rre de oub rtin who said in r8g4, " B fore all things it is necessary that we should preserve in sport those characteristics of nobility and chivalry which ha e distinguished it in the past, so that it may continue to play the same part in the ducation of the p opl s of to-day as it play d so admirably in the days of ancient Greece." One important outcome of the Olympic Games affecting directly the Engli h-speaking p opl s was the institution in rgzo of a match to b held ev ry f urth y ar imm diat ly after the Games betwe n th combined str ngth of the whole British Empire and the pick of the Am rican Olympic T an1. The first of these matches, run entirely on the t am and r lay principl , r sult din a draw, but Am rica won the n xt two. n each occasion riti h or world's r cords w r br k n; but n ither victori s nor records ar important wh n compar d with the wond rful und rstanding and x 11 nt good comrade– ship which th e match s hav ng n r db tw nth flow r of the young m nhood of Am ri , r at ritain, and th va t Dominion ov r as. Thi go d f llov hip is about to r ult in the formation of a riti h m ir port L ague, which will lead to th holding of Briti h Empir am ~ in very fourth year b tw en the Olympiad in ith r r at Britain or one of th Dominions. The first 1 bration is being planned to take place at Hamilton, anada, in Augu t, 1930