AN ILL-ADVISED ATTACK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 317, 30 March 1928, Page 10

AN ILL-ADVISED ATTACK

THERE have been frequent attacks on the Olympic Games. Few have been more bitter than that made by the London “Daily Express.” This journal accuses the Games of being “definitely lowering to competitors, not merely the men and women participating, but the committees and nations which they represent.” It says, too, that “they introduce politics, with the inevitable result of friction and ill-will, accusations and recriminations.” Coming at a time when all the British countries are definitely committed to sending representatives to this year’s Games, this attack is in the worst possible taste. More so, when preparations are so far advanced. The time to criticise is past, and opponents of the Games might well have been silent now, or have spoken sooner. Hide-bound English critics of the “good old school” can no longer afford to take up a dog-in-the-manger attitude toward international sport. The day is gone when England was supreme in practically every branch of sport; not because England is decadent, as some gloomy critics proclaim, but because other nations have arisen in the international arena, bringing with them new ideas and methods. Only eight Olympiads have so far been held. It is true that friction has occasionally developed between some of the competing countries, but it has not been serious. No greater tribute to the Games could be paid than to briefly mention what they have done in spreading sport the world over, and in helping to clear away the atmosphere of bitterness among the European countries which the war left behind. The “Daily Express” seeks perfection in a day. Others, more tolerant of human nature, realise that with so many nations new to international sport, mistakes and misunderstandings are bound to occur. But to say that the Games are “definitely is arrant nonsense. This outburst by the “Daily Express does not represent anything but a disgruntled minority in English sport. The Olympic Games have the support of an overwhelming majority of British sportsmen who have moved with the times and who realise the broadening influence of the Games on international life and affairs, as well as in the field of sport, which is their primary objective.