Olympic Cavalcade

)0 OLYMRIC CAVALCADE in with the Mother Country, and those who ran for Great Britain all seem to have come under the generic term o('England'. In~ the 100 metres dash the 1904 triple victor, Archie Hahn, was up . against Lawson ~ Robertson, (who became his country's famous Olympic j Coach~ later), Fay Moulton and W. D. Eaton of U.S.A., Knut Lindberg, " Sweden, and the Australian Niget Barker, who was running for England. · ~Barker showed up very well in that race. He was not equal to holding Hahn, _:who had well earn~d his nickname of the 'Milwaukee Meteor', but he made a great fight for second place with F. R. Moulton, who only just pipped him on the post. In his exc;ellent book The Story of the Olympic Games, written after the 1936 Olympiad_in Berlin, my friend, John Kieran, U.S..,A.., lras a good story _to tell of tHat meteoric dash-at Athens in 1906. He says of the Americans: "The supremacy~ estabJished in 1896 still held, though: other nations were well represented at -Athens in 1906. In the 100 m€tres sprint, for instance, four of the six men who qualified for the firial were from the United · State~s-; They were Archie Hahn, Fay Moulton, W. D. Eaton and ·Law?on-Rol;lertson. They finished in that order except that Nigel Barker, ~_the sp€edy Australian, edged himself into 3rd place between Moulton and Eaton. - "Lawson ::Roberison, famo!-ls as a .College , and 0 lympic Coach since -those days anCl-:called: 'Robbie' by-everyone in athletics, tells a tale of guile in that race. According to Robbie,-an elegant Greek, ..wh~ wore a high pat ~ - and~ frock coat in pursuit b_f his -official ~duty -as ·starter;"had been sending the runners off the mark by firing. a muzzle-loa_ding hors_e pistol of ancient lineage. He gave his·commands in Gre~:k, of course·, of which the· United States sprinters liad picked up just enough to get along on. In the trial heats tpey discovered th~t he never varied his words, his method, or his tempo. He said 'Lava tavessenl',~ which means ~on your Marks!' ~en 'Etami!', --=-which.means 'Get set!'-iliis is~ still ! he gospel according to Robertson- ~nd ilien-fired off his-gun in great··haste. . "So Robbie, Eaton, Moulton and Halm agreed that there wasn't mU<~h sef!se in. lingertng o~ the -mark too long when they knew that the pistol :;wnuld pe fired accori:ling !6 rele~tless sdiedule. _They decided to start'when the high-~atted and ·fr.oc~coat~d Greek pistol expert said 'Etamil' ... ·knowing that lie would pull -the tljgger oihis·antique w~appn im,mediately thereafter. 'But Hahn was smarter than all of_us,' Robpi:e says. 'He started _~as soon as· the Greek s]:~oke his flrst syllable and the rest.of us·were_left at the ·post! Halm has denied the 1:ale frQm time to time, but never too ve~emently. He didn't Wf!~t to ~_ spoil Rober1son's story.-- Furthermore; the records indicate-that A!:chie was al~.ays fit:st off the mark, no matter·w ho officiated . as starter or where the race was." ~- - ~ ~ "'.:_ ~ Th~~ 4GO m_etres--:was to introduce~~ the wi )rld two gr~at~personalities in athletic spnt t. One ·w~ ·the lad Paul Pilgrim of the New York A.C. He