Evening star., 1938-07-15
F|NNS WOULD CUT
PROGRAM TOBONE
No Lavish Accommodations
for Officials, Athletics
Could Be Expected.
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

ASSOClete0 freSS Sports Wrlter.
NEW YORK, July 15.-Now that
Japan has tossed in the towel. the
lao Olympic games are almost GER
tain to be conducted in Helsingfors,
Finland, a neat little city of 100000
In the Far North, only brief reindeer
drive from the Arctic Circle.
The site, if approved by the Inter-
national Olympic Committee at q spe-
cial meeting to be called by its presi-
dent, Count Henri de Ballet Latour OF
Belgium, will supply in great quantities
HE bucolic simplicity that the Olym-
pic folks have been wanting to get back
to.
When the Firms originally bid for
the 1910 games, and lost out to
Japan, their big talking point was the
promise that they wouldn't spoil the
boys with elegant surroundings, such
as they were forced to endure at Los
Angeles in 80 and at Berlin in SO.
Now that they will have two less
years to prepare for the event than
they had foreseen, there seems practi-
cally no limit to the simplicity which
the Finnish people might achieve
They should be able to appease the
Spartan instincts Of the most rugged
Of the olympic badge-wearers.
Few Hotels Available.
Helsingfors has only three or four
drst-class hotels to accommodate the
visiting committeeman, sports writer's
and spectators who will be drawn by
the event. And then something, Of
course, will have to be done about the
athletes who always tag along. It
looks . tight fit, but the Firms claim
they can doit, and they haven't missed
. payment yet on their war debt
AS they are known to be cautious
with their money, the Films un-
doubtedly will do a minimum of per-
manent building for hte games. They
can get by with q stadium, a SWIM
ming pool and an auditorium for the
indoor events. A few hundred knock
down cottages can be thrown together
for the athletes from Finland's limit
less supply Of timber.
If you are interested, by the way,
Finland Is three-fourths covered with
forests, and there are something like
10000 lakes. Even the locomotives
and factories mostly burn wood in
stead Of coal. There is a total popu-
lation Of just under 100000, and
321a per cent Of them are crack
long distance runners.
Officials Face Walking.
In all Finland there are only 10000
pleasure motor cars. which indicates
that there might arise q grave prob
lem in transporting the officials to
and from their quarters. Less than
l per cent Of Firms over is are il
literate, and most Of them carry stop
watches to time themselves as they
run to school each morning. The
little tots Of Helsingfors are warned
that they'll never run like Paavo
Nurmi II they don't watch their knee
action.
For some reason the Firms, though
situated farther north. do not go in
for winter sports to the extent that
Norway does, SO the 1910 winter Olym-
pics probably will be awarded to Oslo.
They originally were slated for Sap
poro, Japan.
Awarding Of the games to the frugal
Firms will not be good news to some.
for they already have warned that they
will pare the program right to the
bone, cutting out lot Of extra-added
sports that gradually have attached
themselves to the big carnival.
The 13 events on the official Olym-
pic program are: Track and field,
gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, fencing,
shooting, rowing. swimming. riding,
cycling, weight-lifting, yachting and
the modern pentathlon.
Japan's Representative Sad.
The Films, therefore, will be at lib
erty to drop soccer, polo, water polo,
field hockey, handball, basket ball,
baseball and other assorted national
favorites, If they feel like it.
Ichiroh Sawada, American repre-
sentative of the Japanese Olympic
Committee here, had not yet received
ofhcial notification that Japan was re-
linquishing the games, but was re-
signed to the loss. He was q sad little
man as he discussed it.
"The people Of Japan will be very
disappointed, very sorry" he said.
'"They wanted to have the games"