FRENCH SCHEMES FOR OLYMPIC GAMES

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7011, 22 November 1932, Page 5

FRENCH SCHEMES FOR OLYMPIC GAMES

Appointment Of Whole-Time Trainer-Advisers Is Recommended

French athletic controllers arc anxious to make an early start m P IC " parations for the Olympic Games ot 1936. which will prohahlv he held m Berlin, and the Athletic Federation has already forwarded its suggestions to the National Olympic Committee. It is estimated that about £6OOO a year would he necessary to prcpaie French athletes. It is proposed to apnoint two whole-time trainer-advisers who would travel all over the country looking for and coaching likely talent. They would cost about 1121)0 a jeai. According to a Paris report Germany has no less than seven such traineradvisers. Meetings would he organised exclusively for probable Olympic competitors. To encourage open meetings, where brilliant beginners might lie revealed. tiic promoters would he guaranteed against financial losses. Star performers called up under the conscription law would do their service at the military physical culture school at Joinville, near Paris, where they would he given ideal facilities lor athletic training. Probable Olympic athletes would be medically examined at regular intervals to ensure, as far as possible, the maintenance of perfect health. Such arc the main outlines of the plan, and its sponsors urge that it should he put into effect forthwith. Presumably tile funds would he provided by the'Slate in accordance with the French custom of subsidising Olympic Games preparation. But in these days of economy there would doubtless he the strongest opposition to the proposed expenditure. Olympic Games subsidies in France have, indeed, always been attacked. Athletics in France are declining; the country did not win one of its five international meetings last season, and in the only meeting held last season—against Germany, at Dusseldorf recently—she was easily defeated. The French public’s interest in athletics was stimulated by the Olympic Games held in Paris in 1924, hut has since been waning.