Olympic Cavalcade

OLYMPIC CAVALCADE the Executive Council and the Organizing Committee and to act as a court of final decision on any debatable questions. It was decided to publish sports booklets of the Los Angeles Games in four languages, i.e. English, French, German and Spanish. These booklets were printed and sent out after the meeting of the I.O.C. at Barcelona in April, 193 I. The work of compiling, translating, printing and distributing the sports booklets was completed one year prior to the opening of the Games, but had occupied the space.of two years. The available sports facilities in Los Angeles were such that it proved necessary only to provide new stadia for the swimming and rowing events, but where other sports were concerned much reconstruction or alteration had to be carried out. In building new stadia or altering existing ones for the Olympic Games the Committee had regard to the use to which those facilities could be put after the Games were over. When the I.O.C. met at Rome in 1923 the Los Angeles invitation to celebrate the Xth Olympiad had been accept~d. In the same year the Los Angeles Coliseum, which was to become the Olympic Stadium, was opened to the public. Seven years later that Stadium was enlarged to a capacity of 105 ,ooo reserved seats and final improvements were carried out. Meanwhile, as I have said, numerous other facilities either existed or had come into being in or near the city. The spirit in which participation in the Games was approached by various national Organizing Committees is perhaps well represented by the decision of the Council of the British Olympic Association, which decided Jon 14 July, 1931, "that no competitor who was unlikely to reach "the semi-final or final ofhis event should be taken to Los Angeles and that only absolutely necessary officials should be taken". Later it was agreed to take 72 competitors and officials subject to all the competitors reaching the standard_ required. Subsequently Great Britain was able to send 74 competitors and 38 officials. The cost of such participation in Athletics, Boxing, Cycling, Fencing, Rowing, Swimming, Wrestling and the Modern Pentathlon was estimated in June, owing to the fluctuating rate of exchange, at£ I 50 per head, so that the cost of participation would, it was calculated, be approximately £ro,8oo, but by that time not much more than £7000 Fiad been collected by or promised to the B.O.A. At Los Angeles the communal life of the Games centred in and around Olympic Park. It contained many things of interest to those attending the Xth Olympiad. The Park, situated centrally in the City of Los Angeles, belonged to the State of California. It contained four of the principle facilities for the Games-the Olympic Stadium, the Los Angeles Swimming Stadium, the State Armoury and the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art. The walls of the Stadium overshadowed the California State Exposition building, in front ofwhich is a quadrangle flanked at one end by the Armoury