The Olympic Games and the Duke of Westminster's Appeal

4 THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 11 1 0 0 0 ~ How NATIONS HAVE ScoRED. Analys ing the adjoining table, we find the number of tirst places won in all the events (relay races and steeplecha es at varying distances are omitted) by the several countries to be as follows :- ___ - \ l SOG i moo 1~ 1 1oos rn12 I Total. America !) 13 17 14 11 04 U nited King- dom 2 2 5 1 10 , weclen"' .. 2 3 5 Finland ·. . 4 4 Sout h Africa 1 2 Canada 1 2 Greece 1 2 F rance 1 1 H ungary 1 1 Total .. 12 I 17 17 23 BRIT,UN AND AMERICA. This table puts the situation very clearly, showing the conspicuous pre-eminence of the American athletes in track and field events, and the comparative weakness, almost neglibility, of all other cow1tries except America and the British Empire. Finland has produced Kohle– maineu as well as javelin and discus throwers. When the Games were held in Stockholm Sweden took three points. Otherwise,J;,.esides Sweden's two successes in the javelin thi .rn;ing in 1908, the only gold medals in all these events which have gone elsewhere than to Ameiica or to some part of the British Empire, are two to Greece for the Marathon (when the meeting was in Athens) and the stnnding broad jump, one to France for the Marathon (when the meeting was in Paris), .and one to Hungary for discus throwing. Germany does not appear in the list, nor does Italy, Russia, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, or any other country. What shows the same fact more strikingly is that among the 92 competitors left in to contest the final heats (which is, perhaps, a better index than the actual winner) in the sbc chief running events in the last two Games of 1908 and 1912 49 have been Americans, 24 British, sbc Swedish, five Finlanders, four Germans, two French, one Hungarian, and one Italian. That is to say that there have been twice as many Americans as British, and 25 per cent. more British than from all the rest of the world. On this subject the Special Correspondent of The Times at the Stockholm Games wrote (in The Ti11Ul8 of July 27, 1912) :- " In the aggregate number of points scored at the entire meeting Great Britain stands o. poor third to Sweden and the United States. 'fhis is sad ; but the sadness is mitigated by various con– siderations. In the first place, there is great o.dvo.n– ~ge in being the ' home country ' ; o.nd probably no one, not himself a Swede, for a moment supposes that.,Sweden would have heo.ded the list if the Games had been held elsewhere than in Sweden. Next, to draw from the scores o.ny general inference that British athletes were inferior to those of any other