(July, 1928) Amsterdam may be cited as an example of what the Olympic Games can do for a city in the way of publicity. Eyes of the entire world turned to the Dutch metropolis because of the athletic contests there.
Unfortunately for the Dutch, the publicity emanating from Amsterdam is largely unfavorable. Correspondents of newspapers from all important nations of the world are sending home word pictures of the unsatisfactory and inexcusable conditions under which the Ninth Olympiad is being held.
Paris four years ago became known throughout the world as a bad place to hold the Olympic Games because of the unsatisfactory housing conditions that prevailed. Amsterdam is being Amsterdamned, Rotterdamned and otherwise cursed on any number of counts.
The Dutch committee apparently knows nothing about staging so mammoth an athletic carnival and has bungled from start to finish. Foreign contingents in Amsterdam are disgusted and the result will be that Amsterdam will receive more harm than good out of the Olympic Games.
Swamp land was drained and the present stadium built on a site that in 1926 was under water. The plant itself is described as the most modern in the world. The bleachers are well constructed, the locker rooms and showers second to none in the world. But that ended it.
Thousands of piles were driven into the swamp land and the athletic field built over these piles. One million cubic meters of sand were necessary to prepare the soil.
The infield is of grass, the bleachers painted white. The architect insisted that the running track be red to form a striking color contrast. It mattered not to the Dutch committee whether the track was fit for staging running and hurdle races so long as it was red to match the green infield and white stands.
Up to last Wednesday only 108 meters of a 400-meter track had been constructed. Beyond the 108 meters there was no track. At 108 meters the work stopped because the Dutch committee called laborers off the job in protest against the activities of Kreigsman, the Swedish expert who had been called in at the last minute to suprvise the construction.
Kreigsman had been called when the American and other visiting contingents realized that the Dutch themselves knew nothing about getting the track into condition for the Games.
Kreigsman pledged himself to keep men on the job 24 hours a day in an effort to build a suitable track in time for the Games. The Dutch committee, according to Dink Templeton, stubbornly hindered Kreigsman at every turn and called the laborers off the job.
Reports indicate that the straightaway is barely long enough to accomodate the 110 meters high hurdles.
Last Tuesday Charley Paddock refused to run on the Stadium track --- what there was of it --- because of the holes and soft spots.
The runways for the field events are described as terrible.
The practice field provided for the Americans and other visiting athletes was described as a big sand pile. The track was so soft that Ray Barbuti could not better 50 seconds in the quarter mile. The high hurdlers were unable to clear the barriers.
Szepes of Hungary threw a javelin onto the running track. Discus and javelin throwers were elbow to elbow, dodging one another's instruments.
The Americans secured a special practice field, owned by the city police and fire department. Goats and cows were staked out in the field. The Americans were warned that if a hammer or discus killed any of the livestock, damages would have to be paid.
The shot putters were forced to shove the iron ball across a small canal --- there was no other place for them.
(August, 1928) The hoodoo of lane number six is the subject of an interesting discussion of "inside secrets" of the 1928 Olympic Games, as told to this writer by Dean Cromwell of the University of Southern California.
Cromwell was a member of the American Olympic coaching staff and is well qualified to speak as an expert on why certain surprising things took place at Amsterdam.
In the first place, Cromwell decries the epidemic of alibis that flooded the American press following defeats of several of our United States track and field heroes. Cromwell would like to be quoted on a few things as follows:
"There was nothing wrong with the food as served to American athletes. Possibly the men could have stood a few more steaks, but the food on the whole was good and the menu sound.
"There was no foul air on the boat. I have heard some alibi the situation with the remark that our men were cooped up in berths and cabins without sufficient fresh air. All that is bunk. The men had plenty of air and those who could keep in training were fit and ready.
"The track at Amsterdam was bad, but it was no worse for us as a team than it was for any other country. I must say here, however, that some athletes who were not adapted to a soft, spongy track were beaten before they started. They never had a chance. Frank Wykoff was one of these. My point is that conditions hit certain individuals of all nations, but not any one nation as a whole.
"No one nation, for instance, was hit by the sixth lane hoodoo. Yet individuals, some of them stars from many countries, lost races that they were supposed to win, or to place high in, because they were drawn to run in the sixth lane. This sixth lane idea is not presented as an alibi, but rather as an interesting sidelight on what actually took place and why."
The Dean explained that the Dutch authorities were packing down the newly laid track with a small handroller such as we use in this country to roll clay tennis courts. Coach Lawson Robertson demanded that the officials roll the track with a heavy steamroller.
"After much battling, the Dutch finally consented," Cromwell said. "They brought out a small steamroller that was a lot better than the handroller, but it was nothing to write home about. They rolled the first three lanes and part of the fourth. Two-thirds of the fourth lane and the entire fifth and sixth lanes never saw the roller. Naturally, these lanes were much softer than the inside lanes, and men running in them were at a disadvantage.
"America may feel thankful that Ray Barbuti, winner of the 400 meters, ran next to the pole and that Jimmy Ball of Canada drew Lane No. 6. Ball was by far the best man in the race. By the time he could get up enough traction to get out of his own way he was 10 yards back of Barbuti. But how he finished: Despite his handicap, he just ate up the yards near the tape, and all but caught the flying Syracuse runner.
"Barbuti is a great fighter, who just wouldn't be licked. Otherwise, he might have been caught by the Canadian at that. Buchner of Germany was the man I had picked to win, and he is better than Barbuti. During the race I found out that Buchner was not as good as Ball, but I still can't figure out why he didn't get any better than third. He had one of the outside lanes.
"Wykoff drew the sixth lane in the final. We knew that he had no chance and marvelled that he got as far as the finals. Wykoff hurt his leg in Brooklyn while practicing starts with Leighton Dye. He was nursed like a baby on the boat and gained six or seven pounds due to lack of exercise. In Amsterdam he never practiced a single start and never heard the bark of a pistol. He could only do a bit of light jogging.
"He is a runner who depends on pull rather than drive and no man could pull on that track. Combine the track with the bad leg and you can easily see why we all predicted that Wykoff never would reach the final.
"We had Bob McAllister spotted as out best bet. McAllister was the last man in America whom we expected to see make the team. He was the last man on the team we expected to do anything abroad --- until we saw the track.
'Then we knew that Bob was our only hope, Bob who can drive into a soft track like a horse and who has fine leg speed. And had he not pulled a tendon in the drive for the tape he might have won the final. McAllister was within striking distance of Williams and was just gathering himself for a terrific spurt when his leg gave way.
"As I have said, Wykoff drew the sixth lane in the final. We knew right then that he was through. The poor lad gave it all he had but he never had a chance. The judges may have given him fourth, but he was last as I saw it.
"Charley Borah drew the sixth lane in the second preliminary. He ran against Williams and Koernig. Borah ran approximately as fast as he ever did in his life but he ran a fool's race. Around the turn he got so far ahead that he looked like a cinch. But he had run so fast over that mushy lane that he wilted like a rag at the finish. That put him out of the Olympics.
"Charley Paddock ran in the sixth lane in the 200-meter semi-finals. He just couldn't get going, although he was in the best shape of his career. He was beaten by 15 yards.
"Leighton Dye ran in the sixth lane in the 110-meter hurdles final. There's a boy who deserves credit. For the entire flight of ten hurdles Dye was even with Atkinson, the winner. This was the most perfect hurdle race ever run. Not one of the six runners so much as brushed a hurdle --- 60 hurdles and not one touched:
"Aside from Gaby of England, who was back all the way, they took each hurdle as one. Up and down, up and down, the five leaders ran as one. The five were absolutely abreast as they came over the final barrier. I marvelled that Dye, running in the soggy sixth lane, was able to keep abreast. How he did it I do not know.
"The drive for the tape would decide the winner. Atkinson, a 9 4/5s sprinter from South Africa, of course had the speed of foot to break the tape first. Anderson, first in the American trials and a 10-second sprinter, was right with him. Atkinson leaned forward into the tape, while Anderson ran erect. That difference in posture was the margin of victory.
"Collier, second in America, ran true to form to place third. Dye, a comparatively slow sprinter, fell back and took fourth. Had he been a 10-second sprinter or in one of the better lanes he would have won.
"Fitzpatrick of Canada drew the sixth lane in the 200-meter final. Rangley of Great Britain was able to finish second because he drew a good lane. Scholz ran in the fourth lane, Koernig in the fifth. They tied for third behind Rangley, who does not compare with either. Rangley simply had a better lane and had had easy races in the preliminaries. He was fresh.
"Aubrey Bracey was shut out in the 100-meter preliminary while running in the sixth lane. So was Houben, the great German sprinter. Yes, that sixth lane, and also the fifth, licked a lot of the good ones. It tells a good inside story. Had that sixth lane been properly rolled the results would have been altered in a good many races."
Cromwell thinks that Percy Williams of Canada was fully deserving of his two Olympic sprint titles. "That boy is just plain murder. Put Charley Paddock one place and Charley Borah another. Then bring them together and you have Percy Williams. I have never seen a better runner.
"He would have had a hard time tying Wykoff at Boston, but I cannot say that Wykoff would have beaten him. Some think that Wykoff could beat Williams on a hard track. I am not so sure of that. Wykoff at his greatest could beat Williams. Williams at his best could and did beat Wykoff.
"Williams comes like a million at the finish. He just burns up the track. I never saw a boy with such courage to match his speed."
1928 Olympic 100m:
1. Percy Williams, Can. (10.8)
2. Jack London, GB
3. Georg Lammers, Ger.
4. Frank Wykoff, USA
5. Wilfred Legg, So. Africa
6. Bob McAllister, USA
200:
1. Percy Williams (21.8)
2. Walter Rangeley, GB
3. Helmut Koernig, Ger.
4. Jackson Scholz, USA
5. John Fitzpatrick, Canada
6. Jakob Schuller, Germany
Copyright© 1959, Track & Field News