LEAVES OF A SPORTFOLIO

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6841, 23 April 1932, Page 10

LEAVES OF A SPORTFOLIO

French Ideas Of Amateurism—The Ladoumegue Affair —Contrast With The Evans Case

HABLEGRAMS state that the French Athletic Federation has declared that Jules Ladoumegue has definitely forfeited his amateur status, and it has rejected requests that it reconsider its action. So Ladoumegue, who claims six world’s records, including that for the mile,, is ineligible to compete at the Olympic Games. The charge on which Ladoumegue was suspended, and then declared to have forfeited his amateur status, was that he received a prize of an excessive value, and expenses for a stay of three days in the town, for running at a sports meeting at Havre. The prize he received was valued at 3000 francs (£24 in English money at the rate of exchange at the time), which was just half of the cost of holding the meeting. 1 do not know what limit thc'French Athletic Federation places on the value of prizes, but in Great Britain the limit is £lO 10/-, and in Australia and New Zealand it is £lO. Information received by mail from England about the case is that the French Athletic Federation had then temporarily suspended Ladoumegue, suspended the Havre Athletic Club for a year, and struck off its roll Ladoumegue’s own club in Paris, and several officials. So the formal declaration that Ladoumegue had forfeited his amateur status was the final, not the first, part of the federation’s decision. Perhaps the federation dealt with the principals in that order so as to prepare the French sporting public for the shock of the casting-out of Ladoumegue from international amateur sport. That it was a shock to the French public cannot be doubted. When the charge against the runner first became public, it was stated that “Paris opinion is that, although Ladoumegue may be censured, there is not the slightest possibility of his being suspended for any length of time, lie will be France’s strongest competitor at the Olympic Games at Los Angeles this year, and if by any chance he were suspended so that he could not take part, there would be almost a national outcry.” A week later, when the federation’s action toward the clubs and officials, with what was then only temporary suspension of the runner, was announced, French opinion was thus cx-

pressed: “it is thought in France that a plea of extenuating circumstances will he allowed, and that Ladoumegue will thus be free to prepare for the Olympic Games. ... A well-known Paris sportsman expresses the opinion that if all French recreative associations acted like the Athletic Federation sport in France would soon die out.” One paper said: “We must he philosophical. The case of Ladoumegue docs not differ from that of Nurmi (Finland) and Pcltzer (Germany).” It is clear from these references that the French sporting public expects the laws of amateurism to he treated as clastic.

LADOUMEGUE’S case is of considerable interest, because of the sidelight it throws on the Continental, and especially the French, attitude toward international sport, particularly the Olympic Games. It has often been thought that some of the European amateur sports bodies administer the laws of amateurism too laxly, because of their desire to gain points at the Games. There have been several cases indicating that European control of athletes is not so scrupulous as that which obtains in British countries and in the United States of America. Ladoumegye has been thrice before the French Athletic Federation on charges of professionalism. The second time happened only last year, when lie was absolved, but his manager at that time, who took all the blame, making himself a scapegoat for France’s recordbreaker, was disqualified for life. Even if Ladoumegue had been innocent on that occasion, and on the first also, he should have been very careful in his subsequent transactions. That lie was so soon involved in another charge suggests either brazen indifference or a feeling of assurance that he was so necessary to France’s prestige in sport —prestige in this instance being assessed in terms of success, not of the sporting spirit—that his peccadilloes would be condoned. It is quite evident that the French sporting public in general also had that feeling of assurance. However, it is apparent that the federation, though not the French public, has realised that there is a limit to the foisting of quasi-amateurs

as true amateurs upon other nations interested in the Olympic Games. In all the circumstances, it would be sheer effrontery for France to allow Ladomegue to be nominated as a competitor at the Olympic Games. Since the result of . the Ladoumegue affair became known, too, the International Amateur Athletic Federation has declared Paavo Nurmi a professional. This association has gone “over the heads” of the Finnish amateur athletic authorities —further indication of Continental laxity in the control of prominent athletes.

THERE would be manifest unfairness in allowing such a man as Ladoumegue to compete at the Games while an athlete in the position of S, V. (“Don”) Evans, of New Zealand, was debarred from competition there. Evans is an amateur at heart, but, like some other New Zealand athletes, lie competed for cash prizes, for a time, because there was no amateur athletic club within 50 miles of bis residence at; the time. The amateur athletic associations of New Zealand and Australia have special provisions for the reinstatement of such athletes, and it is under these provisions that Evans now runs as an amateur. But in older countries, notably Great Britain and the United States of America, the rule is, in effect, “once a professional always a professional.” Before Evans could compete at the Olympic Games, the consent of all the competing countries would have to be given. Even if it were obtained, and he were sent to Los Angeles, an anomalous position would arise, for he could not compete at any meeting in the United States outside the Games, as he would not qualify as an amateur under the laws of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States. New Zealand is not making a fuss because it cannot send Evans to the Olympic Games, although he is now a true amateur who once ran for small cash prizes because he could not get any competitive running otherwise. The French public, though, makes a fuss because it cannot send to the Games a professional masquerading as an amateur. True, one is not the holder of a world’s record, the other is. But that is where the root of the trouble lies. People such ns the French “sportsmen” who are making a fuss over the declaration that Ladoumegue is no longer an amateur are concerned not with principles and the spirit of amateur sport, but with winning at all costs. There is a wonderful ideal behind the modern revival of the Olympic Games. But there is a lot of human nature that will have to be “made over” before the ideal is attained. In the meantime. it is not altogether unfortunate for New Zealand that this country has too small a population for it to be a serious opponent for nations of the Old World at the Games. A.L.C.