Show ala CARGO of active olympic flesh Is now in london it is part ot of the pageant of some 5 contestants from more than 60 ler nations where as usual it will be the U S against the rest of the planet with the U S as usual a hot favor ite to win this is a strong U S team ably gil dodds coached and well trained there is only one large fly in the sticky amt ment in the eight running races from the meters to the mar athon the V U S will be lucky to win as many as two after leaving the meters behind there will be dark clouds on the horizon for the other six running races unless mel whitfield can handle the meter gallop we should be 0 K in the hurdles and the jumps including high and broad we have won every olympic pole vault with one exception gonder france in 1906 we have won ev ery high jump with two exceptions we have won every broad jump ex capt one sweden 1920 we have won most of the shot puts and the hammer throws but in the last 40 years we have won only one race beyond the meter mark finland has taken over the 5 and 10 meter runs and we haven t bagged a marathon since johnny hayes turned the trick in 1908 A nation of sprinters we have been largely a nation of sprinters lacking the essential ity of stamina that is even more im than sheer speed on this next occasion patton and barney ewell will have trouble overpower ing labeach in the two shorter sprints we have no one to handle herb he rb mckenley of jamaica who has run the below 46 whitfield has a terrific battle on his hands in the as the stamina infested swedes headed by lennert strand take over the 1500 1 meter test any slight we ever had in this race the best race on the card vanished with gil dodds and dodds at his best was a long price whitfield can be the team s leading star we have heard every reason under the sun for our inability to develop a distance runner the automobile well the finns and swedes also have automobiles running time takes too long it does for us lack of interest why A marathon Is a far bigger race to win than the yard or meter dash do we develop race horses to run four furlongs or a mile and a halt half and two miles speed is important in a horse but no more important than his ability to go the route the kentucky derby is a mile and a quarter we have no derby types in our olympic runners they are from four to six furlong run ners exactly they are from one half to one furlong operators plenty of competition when you have 61 nations and some 5 athletes no one can say what has taken place in the last 12 years since the bergui games there will be formidable competition from sweden finland australia eng land jamaica also czechoslovakia young john kelly should take care of the scullery scull ers and call cali form forma should hold its own in the eight oared race we have not done so well at men s swim ming since johnny uller started climbing trees and beating up gorillas we have won the last five eight oared races but haven t been any too hot at the four oared types with and a one interesting feature of these games is the comparative times and measurements from 1896 to 1938 1936 the first and the last for example in 1895 1896 W W hoyt won the pole vault with 10 feet 9 inches in 1936 earl meadows won with 14 feet inches a lift of nearly four feet in 1896 E H dark clark won the high jump at 5 feet inches in 1938 1936 johnson won at 6 feet 7 and 1516 inches almost a foot higher in 1896 burke won the meter run in 12 seconds in 1936 owen won with 10 3 the meter run dropped from 54 4 to 46 5 nearly fl 9 seconds the 1500 meter run dropped from 4 33 4 in 1896 1890 to 3 47 8 in 1936 this means a difference of more than 45 seconds you wouldn t think it pos sible that such wide gains could be made in such a short period of time races improve the point is this it if everything that can be measured or timed shows such a vast improvement why should old timers in other sports arts be rated even fairly close to modern stars in football baseball golf etc if you care to be logical about it it doesn doean t make much sense certainly as far as sport Is to concerned the race Is improving from year to year getting better and better it if you bring up fee the matter of sanity we 11 bow out |