Olympic Cavalcade

188 OLYMPIC CAVALCADE The Ski-ing events gave the Scandinavians practically a clear field, and in the 18 kilometre race (u·I8 miles), won by Utterstrom, Sweden, in I h. 23 mins. 7 secs., Grottumsbraaten, Norway, was 6th in 1 hr. 27 min. I) secs., a matter I mention because Grottumsbraat~n with that time scored 240 points towards the result of the combined Ski event, which he won from another Norwegian with 446 points, of which 206 were made up by his 1st and 2nd jumps of 167ft. and 164ft. respectively. The 50 kilometre (31·07 miles) Ski race was entirely a Scandinavian sweep won by Saarinen, Finland, by 20 secs. from his fellow Finn, Liikkanen. The winner's time was 4 hrs. 29 mins. o secs. Five courses were examined for this route before the Clifford Falls · route was finally selected. It illustrates what a chancy business the Winter Games represents when it is said that lack of snow presented a serious problem for the long race, but a fall early in February seemed to forecast good conditions. These, however, were set aside by a lasting thaw two days before the race. The course was then re-examined and the total distance slightly reduced. Even so, after the race had started the mercury dropped quickly below freezing point so that ski-ing conditions were good and the competitors produced excellent times in what must be regarded as probably the greatest test of skill and stamina in all fields of sport. Nine nations were represented by 50 individuals, of whom 32 actually took part. . They had to face many hardships, for the race was decided in a veritable blizzard. Some competitor·s succumbed temporarily and had to be given medical attention. The Finns, who finished 1st and 2nd, the Norwegians 3rd, 4th and 5th, and the Swede, who was 6th, seemed, however, really to enjoy the Arctic conditions. It will have been noticed that Great Britain secured none of the six scoring places at the IIIrd Olympic Winter Games; none the less, Great Britain had no reason to be ashamed of her very young team of lady figure skate.rs, who were placed 7th, 8th, 9th and 1oth in a very large field of competitors. Schafer, of Austria, won the Men's Figure Skating from Grafstrom, Sweden, and Wilson, Canada, with Nikkanen, Finland, Baier, Germany, and Turner, U.S.A., filling the next three places. As was to be expected, So~ia Henie, Norway, won the Women's Figure Skating from F. Burger, Austna, by a comfortable margin, but M. Vinson, U.S.A., and C. Wilson-Samuel, Canada, did well in the next two places with but 5 points between them on the judges' ratings. The Figure Skating by Pairs was won by Mons. and Mme Brunet, Franee, who were, I think, the·same pair who had won at St. Moritz in 1928:- Speed Skating embraced four events. The 500 metres (546·8 yds) was w~n by Jack . Shea, U.S.A., from Evenson, Norway, and Hurd, Canada, tn 43'4 secs. Shea won also the 1500 metres (1640·42 yds.) in 2 mins. 57'5 secs'[ with Hurd, Logan and Stack, of Canada, taking the next three places ahead 0