Olympic Cavalcade

I ) CHAPTER VI THE ATHENIAN CELEBRATION, 1906 Now comes some discussion and what will, I trust, be an acceptable descrip– tion of the much discussed intercalat~d series of Games. These, held for the first and only time in 1906, took place in the Stadium, which had been reconstituted for theIst of the Modern Olympiads held in 1896. . The purists, I know, do not regard the international gathering as being a proper Celebration of an Olympiad, simply because Mons. (later Baron) de Coubertin had agreed that an Athenian Celebration, to be held always at Athens, should be . held.. quadrennially between the Celebrations of the Olympiads proper, and the period of an Olympiad is four years. The Athenian Celebration, however, brought so many famous men to light, was so su~tably patronized by Royalty and marked such progress, in achievement, organization and administration, that one feels it must be given a place in the an·nals of the Modern Olympic Games if continuity is to be preserved. National Olympic Committees represented at Athens in 1906, by invita– tion of H.R.H. the Crown Prince and the Greek Committee, were America, Austria, Belgium, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Russia, Roumania, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. Such a gathering of the representatives of the world had never been seen before. Baron Pierre de Coubertin unfortun– ately was not able to be present. Financial arrangeme11ts were beginning to assume reasonable propor– tions as the real ideal of internationalism caught on. Inter alia the American Olympic Committee had been formed and the official U.S.A. team was sent to Athens mainly on money raised in America by popular subscription. That team had been offieially selected by the American Olympic Com– mittee, but i:hat it was still possible for a man to go to the Games at his own expense was pvoved in the case ·of Paul Pilgrim, an enthusiastic youngster of the New York Athletic Club. When the Committee selected the representatives the name of Paul Pilgrim was not on the list, despite the protests of those who declared that he was too good a quarter-miler to be left behind. The boy thought the same thing himself and therefore scraped up enough money to pay his own way and was allowed to accompany the team. · The competitors represeintng England at the Athenian Celebration were assisted with funds raised by the British Olympic Association, which had been founded at a Meeting held in the House of Commons in May, 1905, when W. H. Grenfell, M.P., was elected chairman. _41