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Show THESE have been hard days ffcr the British. Not only on the economic eco-nomic side, but also in sport. Only recently they saw Babe Dld-rickson Dld-rickson Zaharias, the Wonder Woman Wom-an remove their women's golf crown for the first time, but also had to watch an American, Ameri-can, Willie Turnesa, take over the British Brit-ish Amateur championship, cham-pionship, while an Irishman lugged home their Open Cup in golf. Bobby Locke, a Didrlckson lone wanderer from the veldts of South Africa, has been the Empire's lone winner. They have seen their boxers and tennis players, their SjCullers and others left behind. The ia test is de-feat de-feat of their Wightman;Cup tennis squad by a stronger American group of girls. Six years of war, under constant fire, plus the stringent food situation situa-tion later have been partly responsible respon-sible for the British debacle. The decline, however began many years ago, in the wake of the Doherty Brothers, many fine polo players, Vardon, Taylor, Braid and Joyce Wethered, plus a number of Olympic Olym-pic stars. More than one or two generations will pass before Great Britain will regain any part of her old glory, and eVen then, her domain will be outnumbered out-numbered by the United States at least three to one. At the moment, however, it seems that Great Britain has a much more important job ahead than winning games. Olympic Discussions There are now two so-called schools of thought about holding the next set of Olymple games in London. Lon-don. No one can say whether these games help or hurt interna- tional relations. Many believe they do. Just as many are certain they don't. They should help, of course, if the incredible human race had even a fair amount of sanity. There is already a definite split over the translation of "amateurism," "amateur-ism," of which there is no large amount in any game today. There are debates about food discrepancies. dis-crepancies. There is certainly no deep and abiding affection for the United States, and its constant victorious vic-torious Olympic marches. The Olympics at London, In 1908, almost brought on a break between ''England and the U. S., in an inci- dent over the Johnny Hayes Do-rando Do-rando Pietrl marathon, where PI-etri, PI-etri, exhausted and out, was dragged over the Uhe ahead ol Hayes. Eventually Hayes was declared de-clared the winner. There have been many other incidents that were not too happily wrought. We believe the games should be resumed for several reasons. One Is that England, the probable goat, one of the least likely to succeed, wants them. Another Is that after the 1940 lapse, thousands of young athletes in this country, as well as in other oth-er countries, are now in hard training train-ing to, make the team, and are keen to have their chance. They deserve de-serve this chance. Sweden's Track Stars In addition to the U. S-, there is little Sweden, with the best distance runners in the world, who deserves the chance to show what her start can do against all-world competition. competi-tion. Can you imagine what Sweden's Swe-den's mile, and longer-distance runners run-ners would have done in 1940 to the rest of the world? I don't believe any set of Olympic games can lower the present international inter-national standard of fellowship and friendliness, of which there is practically prac-tically none left Insofar as track and field goes, the S. has always been given a big edge in other years, and has yet to fail So there will be nothing new along this line. So far as food is concerned, I have seen more than a few of our star athletes lose because they were overfed. In 1924, Paavo Nurml, Finland's distance star, gave me a few chunks of his main training food, which consisted of hard bread studded with fish. It was stronger or tougher than my teeth, so I can't report on its personal effectiveness. All I know is that Nurml had twice the stamina of any U. S. distance runner. The Swedes will probably have the same. We excel in events that call for quickness and agility, such ai the shorter dashes, the Jumps, the pole vault, etc. But when it comes to stamina, we have rarely shown the fiber needed to go the longer routes. In racing parlance, we belong to the sprint division, not to the Derby and longer tests. We have few athletes ath-letes who have the patience needed to get ready for a 3,000, 9,000 or 10,-000-meter drive. Checking up both side of the argument, ar-gument, I believe the 1948 Olympic games should be held, even If the margin in their favor is slight. The wishes of thousands of young competitors com-petitors are more important than the sedate philosophies of older men. i |