Olympic Cavalcade

FOURTH OLYMPIC GAMES IN LONDON, 1908 the Americans of the United Stat€s and the British of the whole ·Common- - wealth-of Nations which will not be lightly nor easily distur-bea. Further, th€ "English-speaking peoples have in the course of the years found much that is both likable and admirabl~ in the ways of folk who do not speak our tongues and whose ways of life are not our ways. But the old Greek ideal obtains, and slowly but surely is binding the peoples of the wor1d more closely in a great ,league of clean Glmateurism. ~- There is another important circumstance which appears in this con;.. nection. It has be~n said that the Track and Field ~thleti~~programme is really the fundamental basis of an Olympic Festival. That is true, but why? _ At the beginning of the ' century there were sufficient toxophilites ifl various parts of the worlCl to justifithe belief that archery rriight still figure as a popular -international sport. The events intervening in the list between archery and t:J:e commencement of the team games were of wide enough appeal on the Continent and. in th~ U.S.A. to justify their inclusion. ..__, - Now, the question -is often asked whether the team games and such sports -as boxing and wrestling, -which involve personal bodily -contaCt, with the chp.nce of combat, should be "included or-not. It is, howev er, clear that ariy event put into the Olympic programme must have a universal a~cl. not, by any~stretch of the imagination, a pur~ly national app~al. American football anfl baseball are_mysteries to many sportsmen outside the States. Pelota is, I imagine, double Dutch outside Spain a·nd the Basque_ country. Association Football, however, is 1101: only popular in England, it is in vogue throughout ScanHinavia and on_ the Continent. Hockey is the _ game ~>f In:Clia, and for it th~ Japanese and the British have shown some_ aptitude. _Si:mil'arly in 19'?8- I,.across~ was_ enjoying great_ ·popularity in Canada and th~ -U.S.A. and was b~gin!_.lfng to catch on in Britain. _ All said_and done, _however; I think- the scheme -obtaining at more recent Games, whereby -couutries ouiostaf!ding ~ in one particular- spm:r or~ pastime give e xhibitions th_ereof, lS fairer tO all concerned. -: ~; . Lawn tennis, undoubtecffy~ .hid a -uciversal appeal, and was preserved m subsequent Olympiads, and the same applies to cycling, ~hire feu c{e Paum_e was, I imagine, included-for sentimental and liistoricartea?ons, ~hile.: the inclusion of skating heralded -the addition of a future Winter Sports Section of tl-ie Games. . -- - .;- Reverting now to ~the fundamentarbasis of an Olympic programme.- ~-=It cannot; I - feel, be denied tl_lat, as in the days of Ancient Greece, pure athletics, _by which is meant running, jumping and -thFowing - - 0ings,_ did and- still d9es -proviCie ~- form of sport whic~h- was and still 1s common to all peoples, be they white, red, yellow, brown or black, and the same appli~s, to -a certain extent,. to swin!ming, and, in a lesser degree, to cycling. - · - · ~