The Fourth Olympiad London 1908 (extracts)

371 the Queen's wish, to the published programme; and at the moment chosen by Her Majesty Dorando was called up to the Royal Box to receive the gold cup that must have been more than a consolation for his defeat, and marked, in a better way than any other, the sympathy felt by every spectator of Friday's stirring episodes for the courage that had so desperately fought against overwhelming physical exhaustion. The card accompanying the trophy bore the following words in the Queen's own hand:- For P. DoRANDo, In Remembrance of the Marathon Race From Windsor to the Stadium. From Queen Alexandra. Immediately afterwards Her Majesty proceeded to her final task, the distribution of the challenge cups. The cheering Americans placed Hayes on a table beside the bronze statuette of the dying Pheidippides, presented by the Greek Olympic Committee, a statuette which was far more nearly a record of the actual results to one of the competitors of 1908 than anyone could have previously imagined possible. As they carried Hayes round the running-track the signaller from H.M.S. Buzzard, whose duty it had been to hoist the winning flags of various nations during the Games, noticing that the Stars and Stripes were not represented in the informal but hearty little procession that surrounded the Marathon winner, ran up to them with the flag just before they reached the American stand, where the cheers drowned even the enthusiastic plaudits with which Hayes had been greeted in other parts of the arena. The French fencers looked par– ticularly smart in their fighting costume as they came up under the conduct of their captain, Mr. H. G. Berger, to receive the bronze reproduction of the Pourtales Vase that will commemorate their victory for the next four years. The Prague Trophy, owing to its tremendous weight, needed the assistance of two muscular Guardsmen before even its gymnastic winners could bear it down into the arena. At last the long list was finished, The ceremony concluded with the presentation of the Olympic Cup by Her Majesty the Queen to the Crown Prince of Sweden. This Cup, the gift of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, from whose hands the Queen received it on this occasion, had been awarded in 1907 to the Stewards of Henley Regatta, and in 1908 to the Central Association of Sweden for the Promotion of Sport, as recorded in Chapter I. The prize-winners of July 2 5, as they passed from b fore the Queen, had lined up in front of the swimming-bath; at five o'clock the long roll of the Irish drums signalled that the prize-giving was over; and, as they A A2