OLYMPIC GAMES

Evening Star, Issue 21879, 16 November 1934, Page 6

OLYMPIC GAMES

SOUTH AFRICA'S PARTICIPATION INVITATION ACCEPTED The National Olympic Committee of the South African Union has through its honorary secretary, Mr _ Ira G. Emery, informed the Organising Committee for the Eleventh Olympiad _at Berlin that it accepts the invitation to the games in 1936 (states an Olympic bulletin from Berlin). Thus to the list of participating nations there is added the name .of a' country with a long> Olympic tradition. The fame of the South African, Reginald E. Walker, sprint champion at the Olympic Games in London in _ 1908, still survives; and his running in the Govman capital in the following year still evokes enthusiastic memories amongst the older members -of the Berlin athletic Community. At the Olympic Games at Stockholm in 1912 he found worthy successors in the Marathon winner M'Arthur and the cyclist R. Lewis, ■the latter of whom in the long distance race around Lake Malar left 122.0 f. the best amateur riders in the world behind him. - , The South African colours have also been frequently to the front in the post-war games, especially in boxing; in the four Olympiads since 1920 South African boxers have carried off four gold medals and several silver and bronze medals. When S. J. M. Atkinson won the 110 metres hurdles at Amsterdam in .1928, with his fellowcountryman G. C. Weighman Smith occupying fifth place before the Englishman Gaby, then the conviction was expressed that South Africd had rightly chosen the Springbok as her emblem; and this has been strengthened by the achievements of little Miss Marjorie Clark at the recent British Em-, pire Games in London, where.she won both the high jump and the eightymetres hurdles, setting up two new. British records. Her fellow-country-man, the policeman J. H. Yiljoen, unluckily destroyed his good chances in the 110 metres hurdles through a bad start; but this was compensated' by his colleague, Harry Hart, who won both the weight putting and discus events for South Africa, and was likewise second in the javelin throw. Thus the success of the Land of the Springboks at the British Empire Games was only surpassed by the Motherland and Canada. . . . The remarkable position .occupied by South Africa in the world of_ sport is all the more notable when it is remembered that the entire country numbers under two million white inhabitants. Sport in one form or another is the most popular recreation in the hours of leisure of these two million people. The sub-tropicdl climate entices to constant out-door activities. In this thinly, ; populated area of the globe there is no lack of sports grounds, golf courses, public baths, and other opportunities for : exercise. Thus the South African youth develops in freedom, light, and air into a type known not only for its physical capacities but also for its good looks. Rugby, cricket, and Jawn tennis are the national sports. Durban, the bathing resort on the South African - “Riviera,” holds the ■pmrld.' record ■ for,. tennis enthusiasm,' possessing no fewer than 17.000 tennis courts for its . 50,000 inhabitants. Many; South Africans have never seen snow, and one has little expectation of finding winter sports in this country. Nevertheless, there is a wonderful ski-ing paradise in the Hex River Mountains, in the Western Cape Province, especially on the Fontemtjes Mountain. This is the happy resort of a 'small group of winter, sport entliusiastsv:-- As. the: SouthermHemisphero will probably only he thinly represented at the Winter Games at Garmisch-Par-tenkirchen in February, 1936, it is to be hoped that .South Africa will feel impelled also to send a full representation to take part in the great winter sports meeting, -