N.Z. OLYMPIC GAMES TEAM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 894, 21 September 1956, Page 23

N.Z. OLYMPIC GAMES TEAM

IN September 21 and 22, the Olympic Games Selection Committee meets in Wellington. On September 24 its recommendations will be considered by the Executive of the Olympic and British Empire Games Association; and that night, in a link of YA and YZ stations at 9.30 p.m., the N.Z. Olympic team will be announced. H. I. Austad, Chairman of the Executive of the Association, told The Listener that the size of the team would depend first on the number of nominees graded by the Selection Committee as up to Olympic standard, and secondly, on the final decision of the Executive on September 24. The standard laid down for members of the team, of course, is that they have a reasonable chance either of reaching the finals, or of performing with distinction. On the subject of the current sensitivity to the question of amateurism, Mr. Austad said that he agreed entirely with the idea of the Olympic amateur declaration.* "In New Zealand we have always insisted that our amateurs declare their intentions to remain amateurs for a period of at least two years after the Games. The whole spirit of the Olympic Games is amateur, certainly not for the encouragement of professionalismwhich is admittedly the position when

people used good Olympic performance to establish themselves in professional sport." (*Item 34 of the new Olympic rules set up by the International Olympic Committee provides that the following declaration is to be completed by every competitor:-I, the undersigned, declare on my honour that I am and intend to remain an amateur and fulfil the conditions stipulated by the Olympic Rules.)