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Show A CARGO of active Olympic flesh now in London. It is part of the naeeant nf nms r 5.000 contestants from more than 60 nations where, as usual, it will be the U., S. against the rest of the planet, with the U. S., as usual, a hot favorite 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 ointment. oint-ment. In the eight running races from the 100 meters to the marathon, mar-athon, the U. S. will be luc ky to win as many as two. After leaving the 200 meters behind, there will be dark clouds on the horizon for the other six running races unless Mel Whitfield can handle the 800 meter gallop. We should be O. 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 every ev-ery high jump with two exceptions. We have won every broad jump ex-cept ex-cept one, Petterssen, Sweden, 1920. We have won most of the shot puts 1 and the hammer throws. But in the ' last 40 years we have won only one race beyond the 400 meter mark. Finland has taken over the 5,000 'and 10,000 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 quality qual-ity of stamina that is even more important im-portant than sheer speed. On this next occasion, Patton and Barney Ewell will have trouble overpowering overpower-ing LaBeach in the two shorter sprints. We have no one to handle Herb McKenley of Jamaica, who has run the 400 below 46. Whitfield has a terrific battle on his hands in the 800 as the stamina-infested Swedes, headed by Lennert Strand, take over the 1,500 meter test. Any slight chance 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. automo-biles. Running time takes too long? It does for ns. Lack of interest? Why? A marathon is a far bigger race to win than the 100 yard or 100 meter dash. Do we develop race horses to run four furlongs or a mile and a 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 runners. run-ners. Exactly they are from one-half one-half to one furlong operators. Plenty of Competition When you have 61 nations and some 5,000 athletes no one can say what has taken place in the last 12 years since the Berlin games. There will be formidable competition from Sweden, Finland, Australia, England, Eng-land, Jamaica, also Czechoslovakia. Young John Kelly should take care of the scullers and California Cali-fornia should hold its own in the eight-oared race. We have not done so well at men's swimming swim-ming since Johnny Weismuller started climbing trees and beating beat-ing 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 without a coxswain. One interesting feature of these games is the comparative times and measurements from 1896 to 1936 . the first and the last. For example in 1896 W. W. Hoyt won the pole vault with 10 feet 9 inches. In 1936 Earl Meadows won with 14 feet, 3V inches a lift of nearly four feet. In 1896, E. H. Clark won the high jump at 5 feet, 11 inches. In 1936. Johnson won at 6 feet 7 and 1516 inches almost a foot higher. In 1896 Burke won the 100 meter run in 12 seconds. In 1936 Owen won with 10.3. The 400 meter run dropped from 54.4 to 46.5, nearly 9 seconds. The 1500 meter run dropped from 4 33 4 in 1896 to 3.47.8 in 1936. This means a difference of more than 45 seconds. You wouldn't think it possible pos-sible that such wide gains could be made in such a short period of time. Races Improve The point is this if everything that can be measured or timed shows such a vast improvement, why should old-timers in other sports be rated even fairly close to modern stars in football, baseball golf etc? If you care to be logical about it, it doesn't make much sense. Certainly as far as sport is concerned the race is improving from year to year, getting better and better. If you bring up fhe matter of sanity we'll bow out. |