Olympic Cavalcade

OLYMPIC CAVALCADE On Monday, 13 July, the Olympic Games of London, 1908, were formally opened by King Edward VII, the Patron, with Queen Alexandra. The Duke and Duchess of Sparta; Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse; the Prime Minister of Nepal; the American, Russian, French and Austrian Ambassadors; the Duke and Duchess of Connaught with Princess Patricia; the Prince and Princess ofWales; Prince Henry and Prince Albert ofWales; Princess Louise and the Duke of Argyll were also present when Lord Desborough presented Baron Pierre de Coubertin and Members of the International Committee to the King. The following nations then paraded round before His Majesty: Austria, 9; Belgium, 15; Bohemia, 23; Denmark, 126; France, 27; Germany, 61; Greece, 2o; Holland, 51; Hungary, 57; Italy, 35; Norway, 49; Sweden, III; Finland, 64; U.S.A., 68; Australasia, 14; Canada, 32; South Africa, 13; United Kingdom of Great Britain, 226. That was a wonderful sight as one stood on the banking looking along the length of the track round which the teams were marching. There were in the bright green stadium nearest to us a huge wrestling mat and beyond it the blue expanse of the swimming tank, flanked by a great scoreboard. Round the cinder path were approaching the teams headed by thei~ entab– lature and standard-bearer. Most of the officials wore high hats and frock– coats, and the women onlookers the long dresses, the large flowery hats and the mutton-chop sleeves of that period. Athletes of those days still wore knee-length shorts and singlets with sleeves reaching down to the elbow. With the British team, too, it was notable that a number of men wore light or dark-blue blazers above their athletic clothing. All the teams from the conscript nations were very smart in their appearance and movements, moving like men who had been well drilled and disciplined; the standard-bearer was usually followed by~a double row in fours of high ranking Service officers in the full-dress of tgeir own country. As the Athletic section is generally considered to form the basis of the whole Olympic Festival and is probably the section upon which the general public bases its appreciation of the merits of the competing nations, that section will be dealt with first. In the case of the gymnasts and the cyclists, however, these contests were, in the main, completed in the first week, during which, also, the greater part of the field events and the long-distance races were carried out. For the sake of uniformity I shall use the phrase 'United Kingdom' (U.K.) to describe the British competitors. But it is right to say that, by arrangement between England, Scotland and Ireland, men from those three countries were entered under the generic term as 'Great Britain and Ireland'. Which should have gone some way to satisfy the craving of the Irish to preserve their individuality. The weather was unfavourable, on the whole, during the first