Evening star., 1924-05-25


"ames, a quartet of champion pad
diers of the Washington Canoe Club
VIII sail for Franco on the S. S.
America June 16 with the American
olympic track team.
Recognized throughout the length
and breadth of the United States as
americas champion canoeists, these
washington boys who have lost but
Two important races during the last
eight years, though they have COM
peted in more than twenty-four sec
tional. national and international re-
Gattas, are going abroad to aid in
populariSing the canvas-boat sport
among the foreiGn countries and in
order to bring home the Dacon-or
rather the trophies cmblematic of the
worlds premier padding honors.
For the first time in the history of
The venerable Olympic games, canoe
ing events have this year been listed
on the programmed as regular and
permanent features, but as demon
strational, probationary contests
which will be tested out thoroughly,
and if not found wanting will be an
nexed as fixtures on future Olympic
calendars of sport
Strange to relate, the news of the
international canoe races at Paris
came To Washington by way of
canada. BY chance, one of the mem
bcrs of the Washington Canoe Club
happened to glance over the columns
of Il Toronto newspaper. He saw and
read an interesting yarn about
crew of eight men that was to be
selected by elimination contests to
represent Canada in the canoe races
at Paris. This member referred the
clipping to the officials of the local
canoe club, who decided, after de-
liberation, to finance the overseas
Jaunt of their four best paddlers to
compete in the famous contests
The trip to Paris to compete in the
Olympic games is the finest athletic
plum ever offered to the athletes of
Washington in the history of sport
Small wonder that every amateur
member who has 4 ghost of a chance
I" make the Olympic crew is out
trying for the Washington Canoe
Club four. If you chance to pass
over the new Georgetown bridge any
week day about o'clock in the aft
ernoon you may notice the peaceful
Potomac far below you dotted with
racing canoes, for these amateur
clubmen believe in strenuous training
as the proper preparation for Cruel
ing races. The oarsmen in no var
sity she'll in all America are working
more diligently or training more
faithfully than are the twenty-five
paddlers who daily speed up and
down the Potomac in the neighbor-
hood of the Three Sisters and the
old Aqueduct bridge.
= s;E4:
TNDER the active leadership of
Vice Commodore Harry Knight,
one of the most enthusiastic and pro-
iicient blade welders in the United
States, the paddlers of Washington's
notable amateur athletic club are
rapidly rounding into shape for the
final tussles which will decide the
makeup of the quartet that will go
abroad
Knight has mastered both the sci
ence and mechanics of canoeing. He
knows all the tricks of the padding
pastime and he knows how to impart
to his comrades. He has even delved
into the technique of canoe strokes
to the extent that he has originated
model method of plying the double
bladed paddles which at this writing
ranks as the superior of all other
systems used by American or Cana
dian canoeists.
The decision of the Washington
Canoe Club to send it's ablest repre-
SentativeS to France for competition
features financial sacrifices on the
part of the membership of that or
ganizat ton in order to raise the $4,000
essential to pay the expenses of the
foreign trip. Here is a remarkable
case of one Olympic team, at least,
that will go abroad without hue and
cry and public solicitation of funds.
Many of the youthful Washington
mans who Clipped in SO or $50 in
order to do their bit toward sending
their representatives to Paris are
government clerks who could ill af-
ford to spare the money. Sacrifices
of this sort are the kind that ulti-
mately will place amateur sport in
the District of Columbia on the high
plane Wn1Cn IL merits.
! IN anorner year the Washington
Canoe Club will be old enough to
vote, this sporting society having
been formed initially as an outgrowth
IF the Potomac Boat Club. Thirty
former members of that organization
banded together and established the
canvas craft club, which ever since
its entrance in the canoe-racing game
has been spreading the fame of
Americas most beautiful city far and
wide in the swath of its ever-multi-
plying victories.
During the last decade the red,
white and blue of the Washington
paddlers has been first across the
finish line in so many important
races that now it is a foregone con-
,usion along the Atlantic coast that
whenever the lads from the Federal
capital enter a regatta they will
carry away the lions share of the
prizes.
1t was in 1915 that the paddle
pliers from Washington first sent
crew to the Sugar Island (Canada)
camp of the American Canoeing As
sociation. There annually canoeists
from all parts of the United States
Gather for a two-week camp and
daily contests in skill. speed and dex-
terity in handling the cedar racing
boats and canvas-covered pleasure
craft. This organization was found
cd to further the interests of canoe
racing in America. Latterly, how
ever, more attention has been paid
TO the camping and recreative activf-
ties at Sugar Island than to the