Olympic Cavalcade

AMSTERDAM, 1928 153 America, moreover, had held sectional trials throughout the States and final trials in the Harvard Stadium on 6 and 7 July; the final trials would decide the composition of the team. The track and field team sailed in S.S. Roosevelt on 11 July. That team included 101 athletes, of whom 19 were women, in company with 41 - oarsmen, 22 lacrosse players, 16 boxers, 14 wrestlers~ 15 fencers, of whom one I well remember had competed at a previous Olympiad in athletics, and so on. With coaches, trainers and officials the entourage numbered 285 people. The Roosevelt was used as a floating hotel for the athletes throughout the Games, but it was not so satisfactory as were the Olympic Villages of 1932 and 1936. The Games opened on Saturday, 28 July, when the Stadium was packed to capacity with 4o,ooo spectators, while some 75 ,ooo who had failed to book seating accommodation in advance clamoured vainly at the gates. Four thousand athletes from the forty-three competing nations brought honour to their countries. The Parade and March Past might have been marred by a misunder– standing, for it is the custom of the Americans that the Stars and Stripes are never dipped before any foreigner. Wherefore Bud Houser, the 1920 Discus and Shot champion, went by at the head of the United States con– tingent with the Stars and Stripes held upright. Competition in track and field events began on Sunday, 29 July. The United States made a good start when John Kuck, Gf Los Angeles, a large young man with blond hair, who had been kept back out of major com– petition purely for this Olympiad, made a new world's Shot Putting record mark of 52 ft. o·-f-i in. This broke the World's record of 5 I ft. set up 19 years earlier by the late Ralph Ro'se, U.S.A. . A few months prior to the competition at Amsterdam; however, Hirschfeld, of Germany, was said to have surpassed the former record. Now Kuck by his performance had not only captured the Olympic gold medal, but had taken the honour of the record back to the Western side of the Atlantic. . Then Bob King, of Stanford.University, took the Olympic High Jump tale at 6 ft. 4t in. On the cinder path America's record-shattering couple, Bob Maxwell and .Johnny Gibson, were not so fortunate over the Low Hurdles at 400 metres, for here they met their masters in Lord Burghley, of Great Britain, who won in the new record time of 53·4 secs., and their compatriots, F. J. Cuhel and F. Morgan Taylor, while the late Tom Livingstone-Learmouth, C.U.A.C., also ran well for Great Britain. Nor was there anything for the English-speaking athletes to enthuse over about the result of the Io 1 o6o metres Final, Here the great Paavo