Olympic Cavalcade

102 OLYMPIC CAVALCADE Finland had already produced Paavo Nurmi, V. Tuuloss, Ville Porhola and Lehtonefl and had revived old Hannes_Kolehmainen, E. Niklander and Jonni Myrra. - _ _ Sweden had 'flm. Pettersen of Kalmar-(who subsequently changed his n·a!l)e to Bj<rrm~man); the-veterans J. LaRder and E. Backman for the 8oo and Erling Wide for the I 500 metres. _ Finland had also Albin Stenroos, who was to rivarKolehmainen over the Marathon course, and Nuimi at the shorter distances. America :had such enduring Irish-American veterans as P. J. Ryan and P. J. MacDonald, holders of the world records for th:rowing the Hammer and Glympic record for_putting the shot (aggregate). From Capada would come a new high liurdles record holder in Earl Thomson, who·was then being educated at Dartmouth College, U.S.A. ItaJy had in Friggerio and Pavesi a couple of amazing walkers. - In -Engl_and the Rev. de Courcy Laffan, British Olympic Secretary, a · close friend pi de Coubertin, was moving. heaven and earth to really _awaken British inte-r_est in the Olympic Games, and old Sam Mussabini, trainer to the Polytechnic Harriers, was repolishing Applegarth and Albert Hill, who had already w0n a four miles championship, and-he had found Fred Gaby, the hu·rdler, and H:· F. _v. Edward, a coloured- sprinter from the West Indies, who-was perhaps the fastest athlete I eversaw in action. - Meanw4ile:_!he ·Staelium for the VIili_QlyffJ.piad· (1916) was being laid . out in_the Gtu'l1_ewald witli a .splendid swimming _bath in the centre of the hGllow: ofthe~ Grunewalg rac1l}g track, and wo1:1ld in no way interfete ~with _the harmonious major Olympic Stadi1:1m to the North. ~- _ Up to tl:!.at1~me the .Swedisli collecti-on-fer participation at B<itlin had amounted to·a million kroner, which at thanime represented approximately £ 1 5 ,ooo: _ ~ >_ · / : - _ The idea of holding a further Celebration in the intercalated series at ,Athens in 1914 had to be dropped on account of the then prevailing question of 'war or peace' in the Balkans. . Throughout the British Empire, too, _it looked as though all associations were striving to attain the Olympic ideal.-The s:cheme put forward by the Duke of -Westminster's Olympic Appeal _Gommittee for the 1916 Games failed t_o raise £1oo,ooo in Gr~at Britain- · mainly, as I see it, beca~se those appealed to he-ld that ~o great a sum ofmeney should not be employed -for the training of a compar_ativel:Y-small bQdy of athletes to be immediately selected, This was a mistaken notion wh,eri the number and variety of the constituent associations of sport conceped are considered. In the meantime, Germany had engageg Alva Kraenzlein to return _from– -.America to his native Germany as chief coach. One of the great atHletes he discovered j n an alien camp in Holland between 1914 and 1918 was H. F. V. Edwai:d. " Marv~llou~athlete$like the Lite B. G. D. Rudd vzere growing tJp in South ---