The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-08-16
ATHLETES. EN IND Old
Revival Of Greek Games Causes
Some Comparisons.
AMERICAN SUPERIORITY
Longest Race in Ancient Olympian
Games was Two and Three-Qsiar-
ter Nliles-Instanccs OF Contest
ants Dropping Dead from Exhaus
tion Upon Reaching Goal.

Though In ancient song and story
the athlete of the Olympic games was
extolled as almost superhuman, and
BY later poets as inimitable, yet he
now appears in many ways inferior
I'd the natter-of-fact man OF modern
times. Deeds which were once re-
s44ded as wonderful are now per.
formed so often or so easily that they
nave become fairly commonplace
Lenders achievement in swimming
across the Hellespont was at one time
considered astounding, yet the Hell
lesp0nt has a minimum width Of one
sixteenth that Of the English Chan
mel, which Capt Webb crossed. The
longest race In the ancient stadium
at l5mpia WAS about two and three
fourtas miles long, which was so ex-
aausting to the participants that Of
Ten, as did the Spartan Ladas, they
lropped dead on reaching the goal.
Who hears of runners killing them
selves by overexertion nowadays, al
though there are races now much
longer than in the time of Olympia's
oIdtiine glory?
The Olympic games. as they were
first revived at Athens in 1895, have
done much to rob the ancient ath-
Iete OF his renown. These contests Of
the physical man have prompted
comparisons of what the past and
the present have accomplished, and
caused speculation as to whether the
human body now is as well deYel-
oped as in the days of early Greece.
The General verdict seems to be that
modern man surpasses his prede-
cessor.
1t is, of course, impossible to com.
pare the ancient with the present day
sprinters IN the early times the
Greeks had no stop watches to rec
ord short races. The trickling water
clock or the crawling shadow of the
sundial enabled them to divide their
days only in a crude sort Of way
When the dromos, or 200-yard foot
race, was run at an Olympian festi-
val, the beholders did not cry out as
modern spectators do, What time
was made?" The only thought of the
multitude was, who won?" A
champion to-day can cover this dis
lance in little more than twenty
seconds, but the ancient mind knew
no such delicate splittings of time as
seconds.
~,vrtSt IUNOr>~-,
sprinted as do the modern athletes OF
Greece, and could they repeat now
their performances In the company
of a good American runner, they
would make a sad showing When
the Olympic games were held at
Athens in 1896 for the first time
since their abolition in 394 by the
Emperor Theodosius, the Greek run
ners Immediately attracted attention
because they seemed to initiate ex-
actly the peculiar gait Of their pro-
geIiitors. In ancient friezes and stat
uary the Olympian stadiodromoi, or
spripters, always have the forward
leg high i'll air, and the other
stretched out straight behind, with
the toes scarcely touching the
ground. They appear to be leaping,
as if their race were a series of rapid
jumps.
Before the foot races were run at
the Olympian games of 1895 the
multi ude of Greeks seated in the
great horseshoe of the stadium were
saying: "Our men will win surely.
They have classic style and grace"
or, as the Crown Prince of Greece ex-
pressed it, They are harmony OF
motion" But no sooner were the
runners away before the bounding.
jumping Greek contestants fell be-
hind the low-gliding forms Of the
Americans, whose legs worked with
the regularity of clocks, and who in
speed seemed to resemble the far
famed coyote Of their native land.
americans won all Of the short foot
races, and when Thomas Burke, of
the Boston team, who won the 400
meter race so easily that he slack
ened his last twenty steps to walk.
was asked why the Greeks fell SO
far behind, he answered.:
They jump up and down on theil
heels, and waste their energy in gu |
ing up into the air"
The Greek of to-day at ali events
has proved himself inferior TO the
American in the sport which Homer
speaks of as the delight Of the most
ancient Hellenic kings. Greatly dis
appointed by their failure to cap
ture the foot race prizes. the Greeks
at the Athenian games of 1896 were
certain of victory in throwing the
discus. The Greek contestants, who
preceded the foreign participants,
made this feeling Of triumph in the
hearts Of the Athenian spectators all
the more sure, They struck such
graceful attitudes that each recalled
the beautiful statue of the DiscobO-
lus, which has been called by Byron
"a poem Of strength After the
classic performance of the Greeks
the awkward antics of the Americans
were greeted with much good nat
ured laughter. Yet despite his lack