The wageworker., 1908-02-28
TRACK MEET WITH
FRENCH ATHLETES
AMERICAN STARS TO COMPETE
AGAINST PICK OF FRANCE
AFTER OLYMPIC GAMES.
BEST MEN TO BE SELECTED
Unites. States Will Be Represented by
Great Combination-Famo Long
Champs Race Course to Be Sure of
Meet Which Will Follow the Mon
ster Carnival in London.

ster Carnival in London.
There is every indication that the.
present year will be long remembered
as an epoch-making ~ months In
track and field sports. The wave of
athletic enthusiasm, which has been
sweeping the United States during the
past decade has been gathering re-
newed force and has stirred up foreign
countries, where many men are don
ming spiked shoes and running trunks.
This is made apparent by the elab-
crate preparations now under way for
the coming Olympic carnival in Lon
don next summer, which is stirring up
the spirit of athletics in all parts of
the new and old world. With ath-
letes starting training and preparing
to compete in try-out games in Can
ada, United States, England Germany,
France, Sweden, Greece and Australia,
and even more remote parts, it is
doubtful If any single year of the past
ever held out the promise of record
breaking that the present one is un-
furling.
Three great meets have already
been arranged in the United States
for May and June for which the
Olympic games are directly RESPONSE
Bile. These will be held at Philadel-
phia, Chicago and San Francisco. In
addition the eastern and western col
leges will hold their regular intercol-
legiate meets. All these. however. will
be preliminary to the international
events to come later in the summer.
The event will be international in the
full sense, for all the world athletes
will be represented i'm the Shepherds
Bush stadium in July, when the flags
of many nations will fly in token of
the competing of their athletes. A
week or SO later the leading universi-
ties of the old and new world may
grapple in an International intercol-
legiate track and field contest, with
Yale and Harvard representing the
United States and Oxford and Cam
bridge England's best collegians. This,
however. will not be the end of the in
ternational games by any means, for
before the Americans return to this
country there will be a dual struggle
between the best performers of France
and the United States.
While the possibility of such an
event was considered as far back as
the annual meeting of the Amateur
Athletic union, nothing definite was
known regarding the proposed set of
games until recently. The first de-
tails for such a meet came in the form
of letter from Pierre Roy, president
OF the Union de Societies Franchises
de Sports Athletiques. At the time 1t
was received by President James e.
Sullivan the French athletic author
ity proposed a biennial international
meet between the athletes of the two
countries. Nothing was stated in de-
tail, but further correspondence has
elaborated the plans until definite ar
rangements for the third big interna-
tional track and field meet Of 1908 are
approaching completion. 1t is known
that the games will be held in Paris
on either the last Saturday Of July or
the first Saturday of August. The
scene of the meet will probably be.&he
Longchamps racecOurse. one of the
most beautiful racing Enclosures in Eu-
rope.
Just how the teams will be selected
has not been decided, for the games
so far as America is concerned will
be under A. A. u. control. and will be
in no wise venture of the American
Olympic committee. Undoubtedly
Americas representatives will be
drawn from the ranks of the Olympic
team taken to England, but will in
clude not more than one-fourth. II that
many of the competitors will wear
the American shield in the English
stadium. 1t Is expected to be pick
OF the athletic club contingent and
such collegians of similar character
who are not engaged in the Oxford
Cambridge -Yale-Harvard contest or
others Of somewhat similar character.
The expenses of the competitors
from London to Paris will have to be
borne by the American Amateur union,
and obtaining the funds is the one
problem that is yet to be solved. For
tunately the travelling and lodging ex-
penses Of the athletes will not be very
large, and as the team will be one Of
quality rather than quantity. it is
thought that the A. A. U. will not let
the opportunity. and what was prac-
tically a French challenge, pass.
Under ordinary circumstances it
would not be the work OF week to
raise the sum needed, but the various
associations and clubs of the A. A. U.
are already preparing to contribute
liberally to the Olympic fund proper.
and the additional levy becomes a
more important item for that reason.
Those who are managing the Ameri-
can end Of the project are confident.
however. that the A. A. U. will pro-
vide funds when the proper time
arrives, and the athletes who win the
right to represent this country In two
of the three great international ath-
letic meets of 1908 will have honors