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Show Plfl r GMWZAwl j ctHPHESE next Olympic games will be just about the same as the others." Dean Cromwell was speaking at the University of California Cali-fornia track last winter. "They don't change too much." "Why should it be that way?" I asked our Olympic coach. "Too many fine, natural athletes," he said. "Too many able coaches I f - J and trainers all over the map. Our track-and-field athletes ath-letes get the best training and coaching coach-ing in the world and I'm not talking talk-ing about myself. We can't miss." The genial Dean Cromwell was right i jo- again. But, before Grantland Rice . , . . taking too many bows, don't forget we faced a war-wrecked war-wrecked world that wasn't very well fed. Also, we had one of the strongest teams that ever entered an Olympic meet since Pindar sang of Grecian glory a few thousand years ago. This was a star United States team that couldn't be approached. But despite better food and better training, it was none too keen about any races beyond half a mile or 800 meters. The U. S. had the call in speed. Europe had the call in stamina. I asked Cromwell why it was that U. S. athletes couldn't handle distance dis-tance races. "We are a nation of quick reactions," re-actions," he said. "We can't wait. Our favorite race is the 100-yard dash or the 100 meters. me-ters. Our next favorite race is the 200 meters. After the mile we have little interest. We have few athletes willing to train that long and that hard. "We can't get athletes who really will train for the 5,000 and 10,000-meter 10,000-meter races. Maybe they wouldn't be so good if they did. It takes more than one generation to make a 10,000-meter or a marathon winner." win-ner." Are Americans Soft? "You mean we can't take the i beating," I said. "We want the softer road." "It isn't quite that," Cromwell said, as he squirmed and twisted a trifle. "We are just not a nation of long - distance runners, from the mile on up." "Yet the mile race is the greatest great-est of them all," I said. : "Who said so?" Cromwell asked. ' "What are you a Swede or a Finn?" "We've had some great milers," Cromwell said. "Glenn Cunningham Cunning-ham and Bill Bonthron." "What about Jack Lovelock?" I suggested. "Yards beyond them all at the mile or 1,500 meters. What about Gunder Haegg, the Swede, yards better than Lovelock? What about other Swedes, many yards beyond the best we've ever had?" "Let's get back to the field events," Cromwell said. The main weakness in U. S. entries en-tries is the matter of stamina. Over here we want results and applause ap-plause in a hurry. We can't wait. Johnny Hayes won the marathon in England exactly 40 years ago, in 1908. Hayes beat Dorando, the Italian, who was carried across the line. But Dorando came over here and whipped Hayes. Let's be honest. We are not a marathon people. We are not even mile people. We never have had anyone to compare with Paavo Nurmi, Lovelock, Haegg and others who could run nngs around the best we ever nad at a mile. Cunningham, Bonthron and others, plus Gil Dodds, made gallant gestures In the right direction. But they were not 4.01 or 4.02 milers mil-ers on an outdoor track. Lovelock Eases Along I feel confident that Lovelock could have taken at least two seconds sec-onds from the 1,500 race in Berlin. He was merely galloping when he finished in 3 minutes, 47 and 810 seconds. "I wasn't interested in time," Lovelock said later. "I merely wanted to win comfortably." Even then he had only broken the Olympic Olym-pic record by 4 seconds. I feel sure Lovelock could have run the 1,500 meters in 3 minutes and 45 seconds or the mile in 4.01. In any Olympic game, or any . set of track-and-field games, the dullest sporis are the jumps, the shot put, the hammer ham-mer throw, the long, drawn-out pole vault. For some reason we liave picked the dullest sports in which to excel. No one cares very much whether you finish first or last. The weight events are the dullest of them all. I don't believe all Olympic events should be judged on the same basis. ba-sis. The marathon should be worth 30 points, compared to 5 points for the 100 meters. The 10.000-meter i race should be worth 20 points, with 10 points for the 200-meter race. I still believe that stamina is more important than speed that hardihood hardi-hood is more important than flash courage. |