THE GAMES AT BERLIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 32, 6 August 1936, Page 8

THE GAMES AT BERLIN

The Olympic Games at Berlin are now in full swing and several important events have been decided, while others are in various stages of progress towards the final. The feature of the Games so far has been the triumph of negro athletes, notably the American Jesse Owens, who has created new records in the 200 metres and the long jump, both of which events he won, as, well as the 100 metres. Oivcns is the. first modern athlete to stand three limes v on the victor's dais in the Olympic Games. Woodruff,' another American negro, won the 800 metres, and Robinson and Metcalfe, also negroes, were second to Owens in the 200 and 100 metres respectively. The custom at Berlin is for "two German maidens, clad in white," as the cable message stated, to "place laurel wreaths on the heads of the victors," and, no doubt, it must have been "a piquant moment" wljen the negro victors were so crowned in the presence of the Fuhrer himself. Nothing is suggested as to the feelings of Heir Hitler at Ihis non-Aryan triumph, but it is slated today that "many Olympic representatives regret that Hen- Hitler has not met Owens—a real champion, if ever there was one—like the German winners." There is no colour bar in'athletics, even in America, where it prevails in other fields of life, and any differential treatment of race or religion is quite out of harmony with the spirit of Olympia. No

wonder then that Olympic representatives "feel that there is a tendency to make the Games a vast patriotic demonstration." Thus the Olympic festival, which Germany evidently intended to make an object lesson to the world of German efficiency, is likely to become an object lesson of German intolerance. . New Zealand so far has not come much into the picture at Berlin, but the news today that Lovelock has qualified for the 1500 metres will be received with satisfaction. The failure of Wooderson, his British rival, is today's surprise.