Olympic Cavalcade

174 OLYMPIC CAVALCADE The Xth Olympiad was notable not only for the excellence of the arrangements· made by the Organizing Committee for the creation and conduct of the Olympic Village, for which ev_ery credit is due to Mr. H. 0. Davis, but for the spirit of almost complete har~ony in which the Celebra– tion was conducted. This time it was to all intents and purposes free from squabbles or regrettable incidents. Tpere were but two. One, when a Finn was thought to have obstructed an American in a foot race, and the other when the Brazilian water polo team completely lost their heads. The first incident was accepte~ by the Americans in the finest sporting spirit; for the second :the Brazilians were suitably punished for their misdemeanour. In both cases trouble was quickly replaced by good humour, for the merit of Olympic competition is to be found in the fact that the contestants live to fight again, whereas in war they do not survive to tell the tale. That was- the Olympiad of which the late Dr. Tate McKenzie, the Canadia~ sculptor, wrote supsequently: - " -We are living in th~ midst of a ren;issanc_e of athletic sport the like of which has never been seen _before. The Greeks alone monopolized competitive athletics when their civilizatl.o_n was at its best~ and drew their competitors from the cities, islands and colon~es _of the eastern end of the Mediterranean zone. The same feats in which they excelled are_ now practised on all five continents and the islands of the seas and the competitors~ black, white~ yellowand red, gather at Modern Games held every four·years since 1986~ in numbers that make the Greek Festivals seem parochial in comparison. "This is only the public ,exhibition ofwhat is going on daily on the playing fields of the fifty or more countries that are represented at these great athletic festivals." Dr. McKevzie's pronouncement was~borne out by-the fact that at the ~th Olympiad America's black battalion produced the world's fastest sprinters in Tolan and Metcalfe; the yellow races such superb swimmers as Miyazaki, Kitamura and Tsuruta; such suRerb jumpers as Nambu, Nishida and Oshima, while the white men supplied Tom Hampson and Godfrey Rampling, of Great Britain, and the world's two grea-test all-round champions Jlm Bausch,- US.A., and Counf Oxens_tierna, of Sweden, winners of the Decathlon and the Modern Pentathlon respectively, and the Irish Free State two e·qually great atliletes in Dr. Pat O'Callagban and Bob Tisdall. The South American Republics produced Juan Zabala, the Argentin-e news- boy who won .the Marathon race. - Austria had their Queen ofFencing i-n Ellen ~re is; Australia, Bob Pear~e, who retained his title in the -Single Sculls; while yet another _Canadtan school-boy, Duncan McNaughton, une_xpectedly deprived U.s.A: of the High Jump title for the first time in 01ympic htstory. Finland contributed her winners in Lehtinen, Is0-Hollo arid .Jaervinen-1n athletics, while t.l-je