The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 25

Ml flflffv JASHIONS in food lor athletes have nacifv the reeion of the A LOT of things went on at the first modern Olympic Games would cause a fuss in Mel- bourne to-day. Sixty years ago, when the Games were revived in Athens after 1500 years, the arena was so narrow that runners had to slow down at each end to avoid slewing off the curves. Ifnner Nile. Hungary was then of the Austrd-Hungarian Em- pire. and the sovereigns of Europe sent messages con- graiuiauny -eiiijjciwi Josef on the anm- vetsarv of the Hungarian IIS Uffi monarchy.

British cyclist Bob JeffefV was just starting to ride across' Siberia something that, would be a bit harder looay. KJlic ucduuire ivau. Happenings that would create 3 stir if they occurred now included: Hat-waving barrack-crs ran on the track to escort a runner around the last lap. An unknown runner's WEARING OF THE HAT, most philoso-CNo, 1896 had no Ima. nhers and physicians The -heading coverea me -rf times con-London County Councils Jemnea- athletics as.

decision not -to ape the iniurt0Ug to the mind manners of, the House of 3 hn ollP II JUv WvJLIU LAJU JI in3 rs- Commons" in headwear. The only reference to the. Games, apart from Edwin Flack's performances, was "The Sydney Morning Herald's" quotation of a -London weekly's comments, entry was accepted at the --The; white -marble stadium-post (He won still stands in the shadow of New events were work of added after the pro- bu competitors--fQund the; gramme was printed in- cinder tracks too loose. Some eluding a sprint swim ex- called them "disgraceful." clusively for sailors from On them a handsome ships anchored in Piraeus, young Australian account- port of Athens. Of 14 sea- ant, Edwin Flack, won the men who entered only metres in 2m lis and three swam.

1,500 metres 4m 33.2s. A i I Those times have been Australia's only win- by 21 8s and 48s ner in the Games was mis- but in 60 years- no other taken by some newspapers Australian male runner has for an American. won a gold medaj on Olym- Lists of place-getters pic tracks. including this passage: 'The passion for com- petitive athletips has caught -hold of the modern world are watched -V A changed often since the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece. At site of those Games, training-table meals were provided.

Boiled foods and cold wrinfcs including (. mora forbidden. Una find wheat oread were staples of I training diet, not onfcs beets. fruit -an orange juice OSl to-daU. "nonuke 'o v--i, tinks between eliaion And the GamgS i those athletes 4., nr ieast the among them mTe regarded by the populace as mm nt.

Since the medical profession changed its mfnvf ahout athletics. it has made extensive stuates cttfcnw The journal of the 'American Medical As- sociation-which. has ilonnmif its whOle CUr rent A issue to the i Olympic Games-says that tne jooa Aitrima trainina may have more of a mental than physical ejjecw "In the course of hi a trainina- pro gramme? the athlete freguemiy: must ww hard and forgo many pleasures," explains "Accordinav. -fii need for Gratification is accentuated. Some nf t.ki need can be imet.

by providing him with appetising jpoas such as special aes serts and rare peejr; a litfle lift VOUR BEST chew and enjoy -MIWWIHK Chewing Oum. natural chewing keeps you alert, helps you.do your best Karesaing) flliouuif if still conflict. One shows an Italian running second, though Italy did not compete. Yet sometimes the rules were enforced with full seventy. Top hats, beards After running more than 26 miles to finish third, a 1LM mm as carefully as statesmen, and an international run- -ning match excites almost as much interest as a battle "Olympic Games are worse than other amuse-ments and, being enjoytfdirK thv nrwn air and tihder thousands of eyes, they are probably better man some of them.v "Rather a population of football -players than a population devoted, like the Chinese, to cards or, like W.

to eossibi'but that is about as much as it, is yet justifiable to say." 1 Enjoy BE AT Flack, 20, a clean-shaven had been sent by his father to gain" experience with a London accountancy firm. He got leave without pay and, without giving a reason, paid his own way to Athens and won two gold medals, As he entered from London he was regarded as winning for Britain, but some results showed him as an American (Americans won nine put of 12 track races). Australia had no team. PArfman lUjIlliail winner Ftaolr nA chance for a -it-i-i "ui tl iT a piain from which, 2.366 years earlier, the soldier- athlete Pheidippides had run to Athens with news of ihe victory' over the Medes in the Battle of Marathon? marathon runner was States were then still qualified for violation of the separate colonies, five years' rules. (As a Greek, he before Federation, should have known the Flack, was a Victorian course.) cattle-breeder and director Throughout the Games of several companies when the starters and watch-hold- he died at in Melbourne jng timekeepers wore top- 21 years ago, after an bats and knee-length black operation.

coats like undertakers, per- He never married but is baps ready to remove by his elder posers in the sabre contest, brother, Henry, his partner Though 34 nations had in the accountancy firm of decided to revive the Games, Flack and Flack, fonly 12 sent competitors. The wreath Edwin Flack At the opening by the won at hangs in the King of Greece on April 5, school. 1896, 80,000 people sang Melbourne Grammar, the Olympic hymn, to music His gold medals for. these composed for the occasion ces-r-first of 21 events won by Spyros Samaras. 4 Australians v4at Olympic i Guns fired salvoes and- Garncs are in his old office doves of peace fluttered 'J? Melbourne.

Jll X' I I 1 EDWIN FLACK -ii 77 xl a I- Ho WAS. the Australian team Wrestlers wrestledin one class, regardless Of weight as in -the ancient Games. A beefy German, Karl Schumann, finished on; top. the gymnasts, Nicolaos Andriakopulos (Greece) won the rope climb, in the absence of Indian competitors. i Two of Britain's three wins were eained by J.

P. Boland at tennis singles and doubles with-' Fritz Thraun (Germany), Pressmen quiet- The Davis Cup began four vears later and tennis is n6' longer on the Games nmcrramme. Onlv 41 events in nine sporis were snorts now being contested in Melbourne' by more than 5.000 entrants from 68 nations. For Australians, 11 of the 14 davs of the 1896 Games patted in silence With a cabled word costing as much as leg of lamb, only three; small scraps of news appeared in Sydney, briefly recording Flack's two wins and bJs The Suez Canal was then peacefully: in its v-tniraein vear. BuV Sudanese dervishes were fiehtina a British null tary expedition that had wry epcuiiiuu 4 don'r have to te aii QJympic WmpK VFtoehjoy'a 're'freshing lift, Just to chance; oreece -auueies Pakistan and Indian cricketers to-dayonly for m0nths.

not weeks. But there's manv a slip between discus and gold miai AmonVan Bthlctfl Bob. Garrett, a place-getter in the long and high jumps, had never, seen a 'discus until he reached Athens, -r- He got the hang of It i to qaickly that 'he jt entered toe competition. la the last throw Ms dis- ens covered 95ft 7 iMiut iim tamer man the best Greek throw. CThn mvmnic' rfircus re cord has since risen to J80ft 51in.) Leaving nothing irom baskets.

Runners wore I white, coHon breeches past their knees. Football socks completed the en semble. Sprinters in the '100 metres, won by the Ameri can Tom Bnrk in r't) Aarf the Olvmnic reenrtt nnv i 10.2s had their own styles. iney Knew no more about starting-blocks than electric razors (or any razorssome of them). A few stood on the mark wun shoulders hunched ana arms spread like farmers cornering -Christmas roosters.

lwo tried the new-fangled of bendiffc over, With hnndc tflllftliri' r'Kl ground, Greeks groaned wheii, they heard that a Frenchman, E. Lermusiaux, was leading by two miles. They were relieved when America merica's Arthur Blake conapseo, ii a Lermusiaux dronoed out and at 23 miles the dreaded FlaCK fell OUt, 385 yards from the Mmsn- When Spyros Louis trot-" ted into the stadium two ex- cited Greek princes rushed on to the track to shepherd lap. Like- the marathon, 'the discus was an event which Greek onlookers, descended from 1 lonir fines of discus- oiinltl with awaited with con fidence. Among- the 21 Greeksmm around nis nnai vicioc allowed to start in the 1896 marithon ithe un heralded entrant.

Spyros Louis, a postal messenger from Mnnni. twar -Athens. Packed in the stadium, a sweating mass of "80.000 rt wnuruRPR 1 9if 9.