ATHLETIC.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16678, 10 October 1914, Page 13

ATHLETIC.

There is a beautiful irony in the fact that the next Olympic Games aro due to take place in Berlin in 1916. The present prospect is of an international gathering there rather earlier than that. It is interesting to reflect on the prophetic failure of the public, who lave subscribed nearly a million and a half to tho Prince of Wales War Fund in a fortnight, to respond to the appeal for funds for tho Berlin Olympiad. There will b 9 little regret in England if the festival is abandoned altogether. In theory it was a splendid idea, and in ancient days it worked splendidly in practice. But it must be confessed that nowadays the Olympic games have emphasised many phases of sport for v. hich our sportsmen in this country have least enthusiasm. The public has ehown a marked apathy towards the games. This was clear in other ways besides tbo refusal to respond to the appeal for £IOO,CCO for the special training of our competing athletes. The view taken was that sport was being converted inti a business and that the amateur was beginning to look very like a professional.

It will be an ill day for England, and I think for the Empire, if we follow tho American system of professional trainers and severe specialisation. The all-round sportsman is the best sportsman, and sport is no longer sport when it is not pure enjoyment. B.y all means let us play the game, whatever it may be, strenuously and seriously. But let us enjoy playing it, and play it for the ake of playing it, and not merely or niainly for the sake of winning. Here in summer a man will combine cricket, lawn tennis and coif. In winter he may d'-ndp h : s inW<Nsts between football and golf, possibly with a little boxing and swimming thrown in all the year round. And all the time his sport is a recreation that is subordinated to his business duties. You do not make specialists on these lines; and experience has shown that only the specialist, the athlete who has trained one particular set of muscles for one particular action, can hope for much success at the Olympic games. But anyhow Berlin is not going to be in the mood for any sort of game for a little while.