Olympic Cavalcade

FOURTH OLY¥PIC GAMES IN LONDON, 1908 61 financial aid from the Government. It was impossible, therefore, to make any such elaborate arrangements, as did Adolf Hitler years later at Berlin in 1936. The British Olympic Council was, however, extremely fortunate in obtaining the co-operation, the friendship and the practical help of Mr. Imre Kiralfy and the executive of the Franco-British Exhibition. Adjacent to their Exhibition at Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, they provided an arena for the Games. It consisted of a central oval of turf 700 ft. long by 300 ft. broad for the decision of field athletics, wrestling, lacrosse, archery, etc. This oval was enclosed in a running track of 586 yards 2ft. circumference by 24ft. in width. Around the running track was a cement or concrete cycling track of 35ft. wide and 66o yards in circumference. There was, in the centre of the grass oval, a swimming and diving tank 100 metres long by 50ft. broad and having a depth of 4ft. 6 in. at each end and a middle depth of 12ft. 6 in. The whole arena was surrounded by a stand accommodating 7o,ooo spectators. · The place was completed by Christmas, 1907, and so had plenty of time to settle, and thereon many records were broken. The entertainment of our foreign visitors provided a problem, which was solved mainly through the generous support of the Daily Mail. The Lord Mayor of London provided an official banquet. The Games were not yet formally under way when the representatives of two nations declared themselves insulted. They were Sweden and the U.S.A. All around the Stadium the flags of the competing nations were fluttering, but where were he standards of America and Sweden? There were aggrieved protests from both Canada and Franee as to the decisions taken by the Cycle Racing officials, a general howl as to the alleged partiality of the British Athletic officials and the way some of them tried to coach their own representatives. A protest from America at the acceptance by British officials of Tom Longboat, the Indian runner, to represent Canada in the Marathon Race, since he had been already declared a professional in the U.S.A. The unfortunate incident of the 400 metres, a protest from Italy that their man Dorando Pietri would have won the Marathon Race if he had not been interfered with by willing but muddl~-headed British officials. The withdrawal of the Swedish wrestlers from the Greco-Roman contest. This, however, was the first time that Great Britain had tackled anything on the imposing scale of the Olympic Games, and, as Lawson Robertson, himself a runner at that Olympiad, and later Head Olympic Coach to America, reported officially when in charge of the U.S.A. team at the 1928 Games at Amsterdam: "It is true that previous Olympic Meetings have witnessed exhibitions of ill-feeling and poor sportsmanship with the blame quite evenly distributed among the competing nations." To which John Kieran has added, particularly with regard to- the Battle of Shepherd's Bush: "Probably England was not as charitably inclined to the American '