The Olympic Games and the Duke of Westminster's Appeal

THE OLYMPIC GAME6 . 37 to be hoped that the ·war Office will take the thing more seriously at Berlin. Here, then, were four classes of contests--0pen-air lawn tennis, yachting, wrestling, and military riding -in which we failed to score at all. Had we entered in earnest in three of them (leaving wrestling out of the question), we could as easily as not have picked up at least 15 or 20 points. It only needed 16 points to put the British Empire as a whole at the head of the list of nations. There still remain t o be con– sidered those other competitions outside the Stadium in which we did do something. in some of these events we were in a cbss by ow·– selves. Our football team represented something like one-ha.If our national strength ; but it was immensely better than any team opposed to it. It is doubtful if in all the other elevens there was more than one man-possibly there were two-who showed what would be considered international form in Great Britain. The water polo we won with similar ease. I n rowing there were only two first– cla.ss events (as against foW' in 1908), and we won t hem b oth. Leander, the Austra lians, and New College, Oxford, were beyond doubt the tlu·ee best eights in the regatta, and Ki1mear wa.s lengths better than any foreign sculler. vVe were beaten in the fours with coxswains, probab ly by a better boat, although Thames rowed under great disadvantage in t heir era~. In these things we showed t hat in those competitions. which, partaking rather of the nature of sports than of pw·e athletics, appeal more strongly t o our national temperament we ca.n still hold our own. So for as they go we ca.n take most of the points that are t o be won. But the trouble is that at the Olympic Games they count for very little. All our rowing, footba ll, and water polo victories together counted 16 points, and Sweden won 15 in running-deer shoot ing ! As has been said more than once in The Times, the Olympic ideal is not our ideal. Whether in course of t ime it will come more near to it remains to be seen ; in the meantime we have to take the Games a.o;i we find them, or as the majority of the nations deoi<te that they a.re to be. , '. There still remain to be considered the gynfua.stics, fencing, cycling, swimming, and shooting. In gym– nastics we did well to secure one third place. The competitions altogether represented 24 points. Per– haps another year may a.dd a point or two to our score ; but it is not to be counted on with any certainty. In fencing, also, we did well to take a second in the epee compet ition. We suffered some– what by the rules and, it is believed, by the judging ; but any disadvantage was probably counterbalanced by the absence of French competitors, and if France competes another year we shall do well. if we impro,,e on our position. In cycling there was only one race, with aw&lfde for individuals and for teams. We won ll800nds in both, while South Africa, for the Empire, won first in individuals. With more events another year we can probably win more points. In swimming, out of a total of 78 point6 (not counting water polo), Great Britain scored 10 points and various parts of the Empire 18 more, ma.king 28 in all, or within a couple of points of a quarter of the Empire's total ecore in the Games. Of the 28 points. ten were scored by la.dies, and we were unlucky in losing by illn-, during the competitions, our best lady swimmer. On the whole we cannot complain of this r8!fU}t, but that we could have done better with better organization is hardly open to doubt. None of our representatives, perhaps, suf– fered more from the inferior quality of their accom– modations than did some of the swimmers. The shooting competitions represented a total of no fewer thuu 108 points, or as much &3 all the field events and running races in the Stadiwn at diataDceB of less than a quarter of a· mile, put together. They included competitions with Army ri1les, any ri1les, duelling pistols, revolvers, miniature ri1les, and at clay birds and running deer. Of the 108 eoint.e we took 15. In two at least of the competitions we suffered badly from unfamiliarity with the rules and conditions. In the Army ri1le match we suffered. as compared with the United States, by inferiority of weapons ; but hardly less important than 'the better wee.pons was the v astly superior organization. of the American team. One of our f istol team& arrived in Stockholm too late for one o the com~ titions, and practically all suffered from lack of opportunity to practise. We did not, on the whole, do badly ; some of our men did very well But that under proper management, by getting on the ground in plenty of time, being thoroughly informed about the rules and conditions and e~ the oppor– tunities for practice under them, there 18 no p068ible doubt that we should have done muoh better. It was, in fact, the same tale as in so many other things ; only the fact that we had some really first-olaae mat erial pulled us through without discredit in spite of our happy-go-lucky lack of organization. (The T imes, September 8. ) . ill.-SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE. In two former articles a summary has been given of the results of t he Games at Stockholm, showing how m any points Great Britain and the Empire scored in the several events and, in a general w~y. whPrein we foiled and how far we succeeded. What is necessary is that we should get a clear understand· ing of the si~ ~ ce o~ these results so as to apply whatever lesso ;;,here IS to be learned from them t o our conduct in the future. ·In the first place, then, we have to recognize that we cannot do ourselves justice at Berlin or at any Games thereafter unless we take the whole thing more seriously. If we are to take part in the contests at all we ought to send our best represent&· tives for all the competitions. Great Britain was not represented in the open-air lawn tennis (the date of which conflicted with Wimbledon) or in the yacht races. The four officers who competed in the military riding, although individually very ~. were numerically too few to give us any olianoe against the other leading nations. It has already been suggested that in these three competitions alone we might not improbably have won enough points to put the Empire at the head of. the list, though Great Britain would still have been only third. . In saying this, however, it must be understood that the opportunity which we thus neglected at Stockholm will not occur ~sin. If British players enter in force for the open-air lawn tennis at Berlin, so will Americans, Germans, and ~nohmen. In yachting, our best boats will hereafter have to meet; the best boats of all nations. The military ~ will be much more desperately: in earnest. . Thi whole standard of keenness and of uoelleoce throughout the Games will 811Suredly be mu.oh higher another year and the ohanoe of _pioking ap unconsidered points in any competition ~ be •liglli. But if we intend, whether for Great Britain or fdr the Empire, to make a better showing in the future, we· cannot afford to neglect any of the event.a in which we have a chance of winning. Next to the lack of IMlriouanms in our whole atti· tude towards the Games is t.o be considered the fact that the programme at Stockholm contained IDIIDI" event.a which, from our point of view, - not