Olympic Cavalcade

" PARIS, -1924 143 Of the Scandinavian representatives, Miss H. Topel, Sweden, alone was ih the picture with 3rd place in-the High Diving coptest. ~ For the Cycling events there was available the Veledrome Mu1;1icipale; a splendid track belonging to the Municipal Council of Paris. The stands were thronged daily with thousands of enthusiasts, a not surprising circum– stance when the popularfty of cycling on the Continent is _remembered. The British cyclists, it has been said, wer~ perhaps rather disappointing, but that, especially where the road race was concerned, may well nave been due to the British l~w which dia not permit organized race~ with lii:mclreds of cyclists starting en masse and racipg against each other on tlie public roads, as was allowed all over the Continent. ·so far as failures on the track in Paris _ were concerned, it must be remembered that there were at the moment only two first-class tracks in existence in England, one at Herne Hill aria the other at New Brighton. As the- results turned out, Blanchonnet, Franee, won the Individual Road race of 188 kilometres in 6 hrs. 20 inins. 48 secs. and France -the-Team Championship in 19 hrs. 30 mins. 14 secs. . With regard to the remainder of the_events I would like 1:o quote the message to the British Team of the Earl of Cadogan: "To play the game is the · only thing in life that matters, a~ia with the hzowledge that this ideal is upper– most in the minds of every memher of the British Team, the Council of the British Olympic Association places with confidence the honour an,d reputation ofGreat Britain in rM hands ofits repre§entati:Yes." In F enci!].g, Great Britain had such _distinguished performets as Miss G. M. Davis, who was runner-up in theWomen's Foil event, and the veteran swordsman, E. Seligman, who _ha9 fenced in 1906 and 1908 for Great Britain, _ and that distinguished Air Force officer, the late Squadron-Leader E G. Sherrif[ Mr. Edgar Seligrnan,_who was- captain of th~ J?ritish team, had · for many years accepted that Jesponsibility and Md :-represented Great Britain in all the modern Olympiads since 18~6, and was the only-British fencer who had won the Amateur Championship with all three weapons.. ~wing to an accident he was forced to withdraw but had previously won h1s fight against Roger Ducret, the winner of the Final Pool of the Foil Individual. Seligman out of 28 contests won 24. The victories were in reality pretty evenly balanced between France, Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Denmark. ~ - The Equestrian events were, -I think, particularly notable for the circum- – stance that Mr. Vivi,ari Nickalls, the old Oxford Rowing Blue, had gone to ?outh America to take charge of Argentine 01ympic horsemanship and row– mg. At the Polo tournament the Argentine team, ~th four victories and no~ ?efeat, beat U.S.A., Great Britain, Spain and France. In rowing, finished )rd ln the rst Heat to Great Britain, represented ~by the TJ-!ames R.C. (E. 9-· ~handler, R. Bare, H. W. Dulley, H. L. Morphy:; H. C. Debenhatn, C. H. ew, A. F. Long, S.- I. Fairbairn and J. S. Godwin [Cox]). . - ·