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Show THE pink-haired gentleman with only a touch of gray In hli thatch was watching one of hit Olympic vaulters shooting at 14 feet. His name was Dean Cromwell, head coach of the U. S. Olympic track team for the year 1948 destination desti-nation London. Cromwell has been head track coach at Southern California since Charley Paddock K JmI was a kid and Fred Kelly was a hurdler. hur-dler. That means a long parade of years. The first query fired at head coach Cromwell was not too sensational: sensa-tional: "How ara we fixed for the next Olympic Gil Dodds games?" "All set," Cromwell Crom-well said. He ought to know. He has turned out more Olympic winners In his day and time than any coach I ever ran across. "I figure It this way," the head coach continued, "with thousands ol American kids In training kids and older men with from 300 to 500 tiack coaches who are the best In the world, how can we lose? We've made a great showing In every Olymplo so far. We should do the same in this one. We are better equipped than any other nation. "Oh, we won't mop up. The Swedes will be tough at the mile or the 1,500 meters. The Finns will be tough at 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Here and there someone else will pick up a victory. But we have too much manpower, are too ably coached to lose out. The Swedes may need one or two of those 4.02 or 4.03 milers with the way Gil Dodds is running. We'll have some good sprinters, some good jumpers and pole vaulters, but I can't see any long-distance men now who can run with some Finns and Swedes who were running for 0 to 10 miles when they were mere youths only 10 years old. "We don't have many athletes who like the grind of training for 5,000 or 10.000 meters. Most of them want the dashes, the hurdles or the half mile. We won't have any Jesse Owens around, but Mel Patton can travel a bit. It Is bound to be a good team." Picking the Team Explaining the procedure for picking pick-ing the team, Cromwell said the big showdown will come in the Intercollegiate Intercol-legiate games In Minneapolis and the A.A.U. game in Milwaukee, both championship tests. "It has been suggested that we take the six best men for each event in the two meets making 12 men all told," Cromwell added. "We won't need that many. In any event the winners in these two championships champion-ships held in June will be the ones who get the calL It will be all aboard for London only for those who prove their place in these two big championships." This should be simple enough. Hundreds of track coaches covering the vast athletic map of the United States soon will start getting their stars in shape. The main idea will be to get the Olympic possibilities or probabilities probabili-ties ready for the Intercollegiate and the A.A.U. games. "I don't know who the best men are today," Cromwell admitted. "Neither does any other coach. But they soon will be popping up all over the map a few of them great, some of them good, others not so good. The East and the Midwest are strong. The South and the Southwest South-west are far from weak. The world has been better off before, but these next games will be among the best we've had. Perhaps they can help create a better feeling." Forty Years of Drouth Probably the top running race of any track meet is the mile or the 1,500 meters. Here we have a combination com-bination that demands both speed and stamina, especially when you get down in the low four-minute class. But how many know that it has been Just 40 years since an entry from the United States ever won this major event In Olympic competition? com-petition? The last American to finish fin-ish in front was Mel Sheppard, in London, in 1908. Since that time the British, the Finns or some other foreign nation has taken over the job of mopping up in this long distance dis-tance event. Back in 1938, in the games at Berlin, Ber-lin, we seemed to have a shining chance with Glenn Cunningham on the job. But Cunningham couldn't handle the fast flyer from New Zealand, who set a new Olympic record. - This was Jack Lovelock, who ignored time and yet set a record. He ran only fast enough to win. Cromwell has been looking for some time at our 40-year record at the mile or 1,500 meters. "I'd sure like to end that losing streak this summer," he said, "but the way those Swedes can cover the distance makes it tough. They've bad two that broke 4.02 for the mile Anderson Ander-son and Hagg. That's too fast for us. |
