The Washington times., 1928-08-03
J. s AM
VICTIM )F
SYSTEM
By DAVIS ]. WALSH

S. BY DAVIS y. ~ kAAass
NEW YORK, Aug. 3. The
worst American Olympic team
ii history.
This was the inevitable con-
clusion today, reached BY those
content to judge by results
and, If there is anything else
worth Judging BY it has
escaped, through d grave over
sight, the public's minute at
tention.
Until further notice therefore II
must be assumed that an American
team which fails to win q single
race IN seven held 20 date. can pe
much better than downright PAD.
1T Is the same team man Lor
man. that less than three weeks
ago prompted General lc1ArLnuL'
president az the Olympic COMMITTEES,
IS h,arsf into an grafton during
which he hailed the outfit as the
rreatest ever. It was = pretty good
team at that. 1T was then; II isn't
now. What has happened to i IN
the meantime?
Already tales are drifting back to
America supporting to deal with
iazity "a training and prevalence
81 conceit In the camp of the Amer
ican athletes. These stories sign
f,Iainffve1y for the days OF hard
boiled trainers like the late Mike
Murphy. They very obviously are
inspired By persons who know az
too little Of the system under which
an American Olympic team Is Pre-
pared Tor its fate.
The writer's guess + that the
nreseFf team has been com
nnitted'' to death.
whv make the trainers take the
nIanp even 81 innuendOg They are
man whose word Is law on the col
laea campus for AS years out oI
as,arv four. but during the fourth
vea,- thew are appointed to the posts
fl,av now hold and Immediately pe-
come mere overseers for the Ameri-
ran OLYMPIC committee. Lawson
Roberfson. Dink Templeton. Harry
FIlIInsarl and the others may make
recommendation but the orders
come from above and, when Ihey
come. there Is no appeal
Nine times out Of ten, no attent
flon is paid to their proposals. Ten
times out or ten. there isn't any.
occasion for them to ach or train
the men under them and they know
III. An athlete good enough to make
the Olympic team Is an athlete VINO
knows exactly what he should az
and when. The coaches simply are
there to see that he does tt
That a the exact status Of an
fllynpic cOacIa--a position Of
honor when AL goes well and q
shining mark for the passed
buck when something happens
that isn't In the script.
Meantime. the committee, saved
bv its anonymous character, takes
over all of the authority and none
81 the responsibility 1t is peopled,
for the most part. by members who
are not practical" track and field
men in the sense that they COM
peted with any memorable promi.
hence. ii at all, Lin their younger
DAYS. One wouldn't expect them
Ia know, from experience, what the
modern athlete needs. But they
40 know. why? Because they
gay they do. The result IL mis-
naanasement or none at all.
However, the collapse OF this
team il so thorough as to leave no
absolutely conclusive explanation at
this time. Even q bungling conn
nfttee couldn't make the athletes
lose every race they. start. The
climate doesn't explain 1t alto
9ether. either. Amsterdam is be.
low sea level and undoubtedly this
took the edge off some OF the boys.
But what about the Firms, who
came down from their brisk atmos.
phere to take part in the gamesF
They have run to form.
What about Williams, the
double winner OF the sprints?
His climatic change from Van
eOuver to Amsterdam was even
more abrupt than that Of the
California sprinfers, Paddock,
BOrah and WykOff, who failed
50 utterly.
OF course, there must be some
accounting for the following mys
feftee: How Wykoff could do ~ S-a
here four times in two days in
America and finish disputed
fourth in 10 As abroad. How Pad
dock. doing 81 As the day before
finished fourth in 22.second semi
final. How Hahn could win the
American trial in 1851 and finish
a Keeling fifth in ISL As in tl1e
big race: now, in spite of the fact
that he Is notorious as good Ere.
peater," he was forced to quit the
next day in a l,5O0-meter trial
that was won in slightly better thar
four minutes: how Conger could
win in America within less thar
two seconds of the winning time q,
Amsterdam. yet be beaten off by
so yards.
And how, above al things,
those greatest Of 4OO.meter