Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-08-14
ATHLETICS OF WORLD.
At OLYMPIC GAMES
Stadium Formally Opened Today
at Antwerp, With Flags Of
80 Nations Flying.
BY Associated Press TO Every Evening

| banners and ftutterlnR pcrnantS against
background of white stone, cement and
wood, with royalty, ofIicialdom, diplom-
| acy, fame and fashion participating in the
program or represented in the boxes. But
| the thousands of spectators packed about
| the huge oval centered their interest in the
ctuallcontestants- athletes from nearly &c
nations, who paraded the arena and to-
morrow will begin their tests of strength
and skill
The spectators were as cosmopolitan ms
the mass of contestants and in the ranks OF
the athletes were citizens OF all the coun-
tries whose flags, flying from official
diplomatic or consular boxes, made the
scene n colorful hodgepodge like war
ship decked out with all her pennants.
Two flags the German and Austrian,
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
Entente powers in the war, had no repre-
sentation either IN the arena or IN the
diplomatic boxes. The Russian flag, also
was missing
The formal ceremonies of opening the
stadium included addresses 10y the King
of the Belgians, who officially presented
the stadium to Baron Pierre de Coubertln,
president of the International Olympic
committee and by a number OF other
officials of the Belgian or Antwerp city
government and Belgian Olympic com
mittees. There was also tremendously
impressive singing by a Belgian choral
society.
The cheering was continuous as the
athletes. filing in from the open space Just
back of the stadium where they had form
,I int
headed by the members of the lnterna-
tional OLYMPIC committee They march
cd in alphabetical order, though the Bel
gians, alphabetically first in the list, took
last pllce, courteouslv, as hosts.
E N group was preceded by its flags,
ana generally speaking, each group OF
nationals was uniformly dressed not IN
athletic togs. but in suits OF uniform cut
and color. Some, however, were IN army
or navy uniforms. As they swung by the
rofal box, where King Albert, Prince
Leopold and a group of government OF
ficials were standing, they saluted the
king Some of the athletes paid similar
courtesy TO the ambassadors or ministers
OF their nations, who had boxes all around
the arena
Whether AZ was represented by $50
athletes. as was France, or only COM
parative handful, as was Japan, each ma
tion participating seemed 10 have Its
special clique of partisans IN the stands.
Where possible, the spectators o' one
nationality had grouped together. All OF
the tourists who for weeks have been
pouring into Belgium seemed to he there,
The American athletes, about 300
strong, were cheered frequently, not only
by their compatriots in the stands, but by
the throngs who recognized thatihe group
marching behind the stars and stripes
were among the strong contenders ior
victory IN the seventh Olymplad.
1t seemed that there were thousands OF
Americans in the stands. Every soldier
from the Army of Occupation on the Rhine
who could possibly secure leave WAS there
IN khaki Jackies from the cruiser freder-
ick, 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. in some parts Of the stadi-
um. at least. il seemed 10 be regular
American crowd The Belgians, OF course !
and also the French and English appeared
to be out in force.
A glance at the list of nations particlpat-
ing in this Olympiadl gives an idea OF the
character of the athletes
and crowd: Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, China. Chill, Denmark, Egypt,
Spain, United States, Finland, France,
Great Britain, Greece, Holland, British
India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway,
New Zealand, Portugal, South Afrl-
ca, Rumania and Sweden Switzerland
OF these, Brazil, China, Egypt, Spain,
British India, did not participate at
Stockholm in 1912.
Today's ceremony, from the inter
national viewpoint, signihed not only the
formal opening of the Olympic games but
the completion of task by Belgium,
which, undertaken at difficult time IN her
history, seemed almost impossible oi con-
summatlng.
When the International Olympic COM
mittee at Lausanne, in 1919, decided TO
award the Seventh Olympiad TO Belgium,
the nation, after four years OF occupation
by the enemy and in a crippled industrial
condition, set out to construct huge
stadium and make other arrangements Tor
the games in about one years time.
Other nations, scenes of previous OIym-
piads, had had much more time and more
favorable conditions.
Nevertheless. the stadium was COM
pleted in record time, having been turned
Olympic committee on May % last.
The stadium is something more than
three miles from the central business dis
trict of Antwerp and is reached by street
railway and steam railway lines. Ii has
been built of stone, concrete, steel and
wood, with an impressive aIched main
entrance. It's total capacity for spectators
is estimated at 10000. 1t, like the tracks
il encloses, is oval in shape. On two sides
there are rooted grandstands, where are
located the boxes and reserved seats. At
the two ends of the oval, however, there
are no roofs, but only a series of steps,
like those of the old Greek open-air
theaters accommodating thousands OF
spectators standing.
The tracks are the ordinary clnder
paths, while the inside arena, where will be
held the field events, Is of well-kept turf.
The running track, oval, Of course, is a
fraction under 800 meters to lap. There
is straightaway, along one side, suf-,
fciently long for the 100-meter dash, but
the 200-meter race must be run on the
oval. The grass field inside is las by 73
meters and the football ground, loo by 6S
meters. There are tennis courts back of
the stadium.
There are of course, special dressing,
bathing and refreshment rooms for the
athletes and rooms for the press and Of
hclals.
HARLAN VA. HILLDALE.
The Harlan team will meet the fast
Hilldale team of Darby in a twilight