Olympic Cavalcade

FOURTH OLYMPIC GAMES IN LONDON, 1908 73 On the final Friday of the athletic section of the Games we witnessed a Marathon race which, because of its drama, will live in men's memories as long as will the feats of Pheddippides, the Greek soldier, and Spiridon Loues, the Greek shepherd from the lonely hills. The st<;~rt of the race was from the royal lawn at Windsor Castle, and the route of 26 miles 385 yards, which since has hecome the official Marathon distance, ran from Windsor, through Stoke Poges, immortalized by Gray in the Elegy, and Wormwood Scrubs, where it is said the prisoners lined the walls and the cell windows, to the White City Stadium at Shepherd's Bush. There were seventy-five start~rs, including the North American Indian, Tom Longboat, wearing ·the Maple Leaf of Canada, against whose entry the U.S.A. had protested on the grounds ofprofessionalism. There were also a little scrap of a fellow in a white shirt and scarlet shorts, a candy-maker from Capri, in Italy, named Dorando Pietri, aged 23 and slightly built; and Johnny Hayes, 19 years old, 5 ft. 3! in. in height, weighing 8 stone 13 lb. The latter was a self-developed athlete, born in the States but of Irish parentage. Most of his training was done on a cinder path on the roof of a store where he worked. There was also C. Hefferon. He was born iry England, raised in Canada, fought in the Boer War and was running in the Green and Gold of South Africa, where he was serving in the,Prisoners Department at Bloemfontein. · Hefferon took the lead at I 5 miles and held it until almost within sight of the Stadium, but at Wormwood Scrubs Prison Dorando increased his pace and passed the South African, and there was general astonishment when the little Italian staggered into the Stadium, turned in the wrong direction and collapsed on the track. There were symp.ath~tic cries of "Give him a hand up!" and counter cries of "Remember the rules!" "Let that man alone!" British officials, not knowing what to do, crowded round the exhausted runner, raised him to his feet and set him off in the right direction. Confusion became worse confounded, because the American coptingent having heard that a South African, and therefore a unit of the British Empire, was ap– proaching had been very loud in their approval of somebody doing some– thing to help Dorando. Now· they learned that the approaching runner was from .their own country and they changed their tune and there were loud shouts that he must not be helped. Anyway, the British officials, quite wrongly, did help Dorando. He took a few stumbling strides and fell again. It was a pitiful sight; four times more he fell and was helped by officials, who finally half carried him over the finishing line. The Americans, of course, and quite properly, lodged a protest on behalf of Hayes, who was the next man to pass the winning post. Nonetheless, no one will soon forget the words of Hefferon, wHo, when people wanted to lodge a protest on his behalf, that Hayes had arrived in as nearly exhausted a condition as Dorando a,nd had been given assistance by