Show IN T THE HE pink haired gentleman with only a touch of gray in his thatch was watching one of his olympic vaulters shooting at 14 feet his name was dean cromwell head coach of the U I 1 S olympic track team for the year 1948 desti nation london Crom cromwell has been head track coach at southern california since charley paddock was a kid and fred kelly was a hur dier that means a long parade of years the first query fired at head c coach 0 a c b cromwell was not too sensa honal how are we fixed for the next olympic gil dodds games all ali set crom well said he ought to know he has turned out more olympic winners in his day and time than any coach I 1 ever ran across I 1 figure it this way the head coach continued with thousands of 0 am american kids in training kids and older men with from to track coaches who are the best in the world how can we lose we ve made a great showing in every olympic so far we should do the same in this one we are better equipped than any other nation oh we won wont t mop up the sw swedes edes will be tough at the mile or the 1500 1 meters the finns will be tough at 5 and 10 meters here and there someone e else will pick up a victory but we have too to 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 11 have some good sprinters some good jumpers and pole vaulters but I 1 cant can t see any long distance men now who can run with some finns and swedes who were running for 5 to 10 miles when they were mere youths only 10 years old we don dont t have many athletes who like the grind of training for 5 or 10 meters most of them want the dashes the hui hurdles adles 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 pick ing the team cromwell said the big showdown will come in the intercol interpol Int ercol leggate games in minneapolis and the A A U game in milwaukee both championship tests it has b been een suggested that we take the six sly best men for each event in the two meets making 12 men all told I 1 cromwell added we won t need that many in any event the winners in these two champion ships held in june will be the ones who get the call it will be all board 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 abili abill ties ready for the intercollegiate and the A A U games I 1 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 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 1500 I 1 meters here we have a corn com 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 jast j 40 years since an entry from the united states ever won this major event in olympic corn petition the last american to 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 lob job of mopping up in this long dis tance event back in 1936 in the games at ber un lin we seemed to have a shining chance with glenn cunningham on the job ob but cunningham couldn coulden 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 C cromwell has been looking tor for some time at our 40 year record at the mile or 1500 1 meters I 1 d sure like to end that losing streak this summer he said but the way those swedes cac car cover the distance makes it tough they ve had two that broke 4 02 for the mlle mile ander son and hagg that s too fast tor for us |