The Olympic Games and the Duke of Westminster's Appeal

38 THE OLYJ,1.PIC GAMES. first ~lass 1 while many- others were contested under rules· or conditions· which•seem to us · irregular and• even• improper. ,ve cannot expect•the nations· t'o agree to.· frame a/rogramme to suit us. None· the ljlSS we have ha a wider and longer, experience in sport• than any other country and the weight of our opinion• (however much· it may have been less-· ened by the events-at Stockhohn) is still considerabl!!. It is the imperative · duty of our· representatives· at the forthcoming,meeting for the purpose oftdraft. ing a " type " programme to use every effort to force on• that meeting· an acceptance of our views as·far a.<:1 possible, not in our own interests, buti1vthe interests of sport: In the matter of ordinary field athletics we shall have to adapt our view to that of other nations. ,ve may have strong opinions as to the ri~ht of' discus and' javelin throwing, the standing Jumps, and the hop-step-and-jump to be considered first. class sports; and 1 it may appeari;o us an aggravated absurdity that in the throwing contests there should be separate competitions for the right and' left hands ; out. we shall have to accept that, although it may not be unreasonal:He to press for a reduc– tion, of 1 the numlfor of points awarded fol" some of the events. After the representative of Fin– land, by throwing the discus with his best band, has, scored as many points as the Leander eight ,van by its victory in the regatta, it seems ridiculous that ·he sl:iould 1 then have been able to go out again and, by· tllrowing with the otlier band, win another batch of points · equivalent to a.JI that our football team won by fighting its vay through three hard matches, Ak'in> to· this i&· the lack of perspective (from OW'' view• point-) of• allowing Sweden to win five ·times as many points (15) 'forrunning-deerishoot– ing, 118, for• ex8Illple, were awarded to Jackson (3) for his win in the mile, andt three• times· as many 88· South• Aiiica· earned by first,, and second places (Ii) in the Marathon race. In,,rowing1 again, we do not consider either<-the race for· inrigged· fours or th:at fol' outrinedl· fours · with: coxswains as first-class event.II,- A't 1688t they should' not be on the same plane •with the·-eighte and · the single soulls) Nor, wae ,there aay .raoe for·pairs1 In bieycJing,it appears• te • US' · wrong to have only one event\ namely, a 200-milell•ride over roads which imposed · a 1heavy penaltyt OD'. those· competitors· whom•tlle luck•of1the i.lra11" compelled to., start.. late. The, rules •· whioh gotetued . theu wrenlihg• and fencing competitions. W111e•open1..to· gt'ellt obj~ion·; and I similar criticisms OOlllil•be•made •on a nmnl1er of>details ·throngliout• t.e· ~ : All these·• matt.er& will Have . to·, '-'oolllllclered-wbelt-'the• " ttype ?' programme• is -being· fonnalat.ei:l ; and while we have ne> right to expect tlM'I~ ·to· be"drswn' up to •suiti~ ·epeoial a.cliij- OJI> ma,: · of'. the·· matters· common sense is -.=t oa our-· aide•;· 1111 it1 wiJl ibe if1 we ,insist. on • ·ng · at, Berlin-· oft all attempta,·. tb · "beat• 1lllli pllklV' ... tbe• llteft- 1 of · running••raoes. and! on• t.la•lleepillg<·of a-znaeh etfieter• watob, for, illegitimate'. Pl&a..e•·,oa· the' tracli:, · Clolely· relat.ed 1, to· thl.'86 are. a'. num'fjer, of · thiirp ClliidM '*1' with details · m:· rules and·F.Mtice. Our ·:S:~' smlered· in ~ event.if· l;y• the ; • of': the · conditlOllll' and 1 ttie• seeming I 1':lllll.;,: ot•raMa; but! ttiat· we-. sbould~ liave lililD·Wim-~ tiy: 'tliffll' WUJIDONI' t.o: the dis-· _...of"tbe·~ ot our·atriinr tlian it wu 1* ._ wticr lldODt.ed ttto.- condffiOll8 and" raltlJIJ• ... .... been maiU,·of•'tb1dtlCt' tbat'oartugzof-war .... Jiill' to-. ~ in· and!- Whfltier, they woald Hli9 VJDD" m · 1-d. ~ we· cannot ·. ~ tint• •.....-it J,llllllllpment woald' liave-: fONIWlll'lled' obt- -· of tHe ooadftfODII'· to lie• met: So' witfi· the hurdles. The obstacle.~ used at Stockholm were neither our rigid hurdles nor those with• the displaceable ·top bar which are employed•in America, but semi-stable erections like towel horses · whichi when Anderson (having cleared eight, in succession) caught his spike in one, came down all of a -pieoe and threw him, while permitting certain other, competitors to butt them down, with their knees or heads or anything they pleased, without cata.~trophe. They may be a good•type of hurdle, but we ought to have known well in advance that tb~y were to be used and our men should have had• ample chance of getting accustomed to them. In a lmost all the shooting contests, with whatever weapon, our men were confronted with regulations or conditions to which they were not accustomed. They ought to have been fully, informed and enabled to familiarize themselves with anything that was likely to be new to them. These things, with the casual way in which our men arrived in Stockholm, in some cases at the last minute, and• even too late, generally· without, any· special preparation and almoJt invariably unorgan - ized as teams, not seldom to go int.o competitions under unfamiliar conditions without any practice on t he spot, sometimes indifferently housed and without the proper care and nourishment to keep them fit•, with little or no oversight or helpfulness to give them confidence or keep the esprit• de corps alive, were all of a piece. vVe seem to be setting out 1 in earnest to discover " talent " for the Berlin Games. It is most necessary that we should ; and the new committee is evidently disposed • to back up every governing body in any reasonable scheme that it pro– poses. In the days when other peoples practised even less than we did, our old haphazard•methods were good enough to keep us in the front. But most other :eeoples are now practising, at lea.st in special-lines,· m some cases with the aid of the Govern– ment, much more and more systematically· than•we, with the result that the competition which we have to meet grows severer year' by year. A long jump of 25ft, is nlmost in sight, aodlthe high jump is·creep– ing up to 7ft. The times for any or all of the running races ,may be expected to be lowered. at Berlin .to extents at. which we cannot guess. What have been considered fir.et-class per!ormances heretofore.are not going,to ·he.-first,class m future Olympic Games,. and to win the, bigger events a man must• not be mere!~·" good;, but, Ruperlatively good. It would be worse. than useless ,to send a mob of second!raters, like.• many of those who. went to Stockholm, to Berlin.. We.. liave, througliout· tliese articles;· necessarilr, meaeured everything by the standard· of· " points,' because •it· is •the only standard•available; but the real thing is not whether ,we soore,a dozen more points· or a •dozen Ieee; bu&·wb:ether we a'!'e, to •he held by, other• peoples· as· athletically, incompetent. As it loolm to otlier· nations•now, it-merely is -that ,hereto– fore we h'.ave held -our reputation•as •an athletic and• epol!tirig> people only· because others . did not• taki' the· trouble to be&t, us. ·Now· that> they· are taking, that •trouble,- we have suddenly been expoeed . as· pret.endere.- Tllis we say is- how it• looks - t.o ·tlie world ; and•so it will look unlees we• also , take• trouble.· And if we •do take ·this· trouble •we•ahall in the'•~ , make ourselves a stouter< and'< bett.er> ~t·•even.' more •important,than•the mere>diecovery of' "t.aJentl' ia, 0 88 bas been, sbowni tbe ·proper:-ea~ oouragement ,of ·that··tslent, its ·preliminary training.· and''it.i m~· on tlie•apot. Tb088'wtib •bad charge of · om• ammgementAI att Stockholm Jiave. eerneitly ·pleaded·th'.at tbey· were ·unable1m·•do·-wfur.t