Olympic Cavalcade

~:; . THE FIRST HIATUS ... 105 ~ ':. encounter had nothing -whatever to do with the matter. The OI);mpiads "': must be celebrated in accordance with the Olympic cycle, he argue~ 5 and•~ · Great Britain must, of course, take part. He made his point and had his~ way. We had strong support from the Universities of Oxford and Cam– bridge and from such clubs as the Polytechnic Harriers, the counties composing the provincial districts of the North, Midland and South and the newly instituted Achilles Club. In America the Olympic Committee included such prominent person– alities as Gustavus Town Kirby, Fred Rubien and Judge Bartow. S. Weeks Kirby, with whom I lived in Antwerp, was the President of the Olympic Committee and in that capacity had chartered the S.S. Great Northern, the largest and the fastest of the U.S.A. ArmY- transports, but she broke down and the team.had to be shipped in a smaller boat, the S.S. Princess Matoika, which the 300 athletes found far from comfortable. Those 300 included a track and field team, and teams for Pistol, Hockey, Wrestling, Boxing, Rugby Football, Fencing, Swimming, Cycling and Water Polo; the-U.S. Naval Academy for the first time in Olympic history put in a team for the Eight-Oared Boat race. What came to be known as 'The Mutiny of the Matioka' merged into the 'Revolt of Antwerp' when the team landed and the track and field men found that instead of a luxury hotel having been prepared for their reception there was nothing for their accommodation save an emptyschool house which had been converted on the lines of an inferior barracks. After the athletes had threatened t() take no part in the Games, Dan Ahearne, wh0 had been thrown off the team for 'insubordination', was some– how reinstated and po U.S.A. athlete stood down from any event in which he had been entered or been asked to start. Perhaps the circumstance that these were the first Olympic Games in which the U.S.A. Army and Navy had taken any official part had a salubrious effect of discipline upon the whole American .entry. More especially as the Service personnel made no protest when two athletes, both boxers-one from the Navy, the other from the Army- were dropped from the U.S. team at Antwerp, when it was discovered that they had accepted money for boxing before they had entered the Services. A great service also had been rendered to British athletics, especially in the Army, by Brigadier-General R. J. Kentish, C.M.G.) D.S.O., who later became Hon. Sec., B.O.A. Up to the outbreak of the First World War it had been customary in the Army to reward successes by other ranks at Army sports meets.with cash prizes. General Kentish had all that altered and a general amnesty was granted which restored their amateur status·to a number of good men who might otherwise have been barred from participation in the Games. Meanwhile it had become obvious that the English-speaking races were not to be allowed to have entirely their own way in the scoring of .points