The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-14
Stadiuu Opens
 With Remnants And Athletes
Thousands of Spectators at Antwerp Center Their
 Gaze Upon Worlds
 Best In Athletics

Stadium was opened today. It was a 1 formal ceremony, staged with set ting of flags, banners and futtering pennants against a background of l white stone, cement and wood, with | royalty, officiaIdom diplomacy, fame and fashion participating in the pro- gram Or represented in the boxes. But i the thousands of spectators packedi about the huge oval centered their in- terest in the actual contestants-ath- l letes from 30 nations-who paraded 1 the arena and tomorrow will begin their tests of strength and skill. !:
 The spectators were as cosmopoli- 1 tan as the mass of contestants and l in the ranks of the athletes were citizens of all the countries whose flags, flying from official, diplomatic l or consular boxes, made the scene a | colorful hodgepodge like a warship decked out with all her pennants
 Two flags. the German and Aus trian, which flew over the stadium in the Sixth Olympiad at Stockholm, were missing and these countries, barred from participating in the meet, as were all enemies of the En- tente powers in the war, had no representation either in the arena or in the diplomatic boxes. The Rus sian flag, also was missing. In their places, however, were the athletes and flags of nations newborn of the war, Monaco and Szechoslovakia, the latter replacing Bohemia, whose ath- letes, though then listed separately, had to. march just behind the Aus trians at Stockholm. Esthonians today replaced the Serbians of 1912 The formal ceremon onies of opening the stadium included addresses by the King of the Belgians, who officially l presented the stadium to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, president of the International Olympic committee and by number of other officials of the Belgian or Antwerp city government and Belgian Olympic committees There was also tremendously impress l i've singing by a Belgian choral so- ciety. The cheering was continuous as the | athletes, filing in from the open space l just back of the stadium where they had formed nation by nation, swung 1 into the arena headed by the mem | bers of the International Olympic l committee. They marched in alpha
 betical order, though the Belgians, al-
 alphabetically first in the list, took last l place, courteously, as hosts. This | brought Australia first in line behind | the official committee.
 i Each group was preceded by its 1 flags and generally speaking, each
 group of nationals was uniformly i dressed-not in athletic togs, but in suits of uniform cut and color. Some, however, were in army or navy uni forms As they swung by the royal | box, where King Albert, Prince Leo ] pold and a group of government of | flcials were standing, they sa1uted l the king. Some of the athletes paid i similar courtesy to the am bassa ors
 or ministers of their nations, who had boxes all around the arena. ! Whether it was represented by $50 | athletes, was France, or only comparative handful, as was Japan, i each nation participating seemed to have its special clique of partisans in 1 the stands.
 l Where possible, the spectators of one nationality had grouped togeth-
 CT. All of the tourists who, for
 weeks, have been pouring into Bel gium seemed to be there.
 The American athletes, about 300
 strong, were cheered frequently, not
 only by their compatriots ir the stands, but by the throngs who rec ognized that the group marching be- hind the Stars and Stripes were i among the strong contenders for vic
 tory in the Seventh Olympiad.
 It seemed that there were thous-
 ands of Americans in the stands.
 hNSIy SoiOIei llO Oltl LIlS f1IIiy Ol oC- cupation on the Rhine who could possibly secure leave was there in | khaki Jackies from the cruiser | Frederick, sailors from the American
 merchant and passenger liners in the harbor and hundreds upon hundreds
 of tourists swelled the delegation
 from across the Atlantic until,i some
 parts of the stadium, at least, it
 seemed to be regular American | poJC of
 and also the French and English, ap-
 peared to be out in force.
 A glance at the list of nations par
 ticipating in this Olympiad gives an
 idea of the cosmopolitan character of
 the athletes and crowd. Australia,
 Belgium, Brazil, China, Chili, Den
 mark, Egypt, Spain, United States,
 Greece, Holland, British India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal South Africa,
 Sweden, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Esthonia and Monaco
 Of these, Brazil, China, Egypt, Spain, British India and Mexico did not participate Stockholm in 1912 Today's ceremony from the inter = national viewpoint, signified not only 1 the formal opening of the Olympic
 games but the completion of a task by Belgium, which, undertaken at a ) difficult time in her history, seemed almost impossible of consummat1ng. ) When the International Olympic committee, meeting at Lausanne, in ) 1919, decided to award the Seventh ) Olympiad to Belgium, the nation, af- ) ter four years of occupation by the ) enemy and in crippled industrial D condition, set out to construct a huge 3 stadium and make other arrange 3 ments for the game in about one = years time.
 0 Other nations, scenes of previous
 O1ympiads had had much more time 3 and more favorable conditions. 1 Nevertheless, the stadium was com n pleted in record time, having beer :. turned over by the contractors to the l. Belgium Olympic committee on May 0 23 last.
 /. The stadi1,u, is something more