EXTRA FOOD FOR OLYMPIC COMPETITORS?

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22584, 12 March 1948, Page 4

EXTRA FOOD FOR OLYMPIC COMPETITORS?

AUSTRALIA’S offer to feed its Olympic Games team on British rations so as not to have a nutritional advantage over competitors is a sporting gesture well worthy of emulation by other oversea visitors to the Wembley Stadium. If a proper balance is to be kept among the various teams, however, some more comprehensive attempt must be made to achieve uniformity. Since diet is admittedly an important factor in bringing athletes up to the peak of physical fitness, it would be manifestly unfair if some groups of competitors arrived in England with huge consignments of healthpromoting edibles not available to either Britons or to those who chose to conform to British austerity living standards. Between now and the opening of the Games a conference of sports administrators and the British Food Ministry should be held with a view to arriving at an equitable solution of the problem—whether the final decision be to live as the British competitors have been living for some time or to arrange special importations of food in which the Britons themselves would share. The British Food Ministry recently announced that it would permit Australia to send special food for her own Olympic performers, and an Australian correspondent in London at once suggested that his compatriots should organise a flow of food parcels for British contestants. It is understood that offers of food parcels jiave already been received by sporting bodies in England, but it is clear that any effort in this direction must be on a big scale, must he well organised, and must be put into operation at the earliest possible moment to enable British athletes to catch up on arrears of nutrition. There have been reports, also, that the United States would make an effort to assist competitors from various countries. If this offer is accepted and all the food-producing British Dominions, as well.as the more fortunate nations elsewhere, do their bit, the final pooling of foodstuffs should promote a desirable state of equality. The suggestion that athletes should he specially favoured may be queried in some quarters, but it should be apparent that in contests of this nature the demands made upon the stamina of competitors will be considerable. A regular supply of extra food for the occasion would permit of more intensive training and make the holding of the first Olympic Games since the war really worth-while.