"
A V7
The Russians are going
to lick us in this year's
international competition,
says a former champion, but here's
how we can prevent it from happening again
. In 1956 Olympics, Bob Richards
vaulted record 14 feet, 1 VA inches.
Can't We Even Win The OLYMPICS?
By BOB RICHARDS
The Russians know the value of propaganda.
They've proved it by the skillful exploitation of
their space conquests.
But outer space isn't the only area where the Rus
sians have formulated a long-range plan for
supremacy over the United States. Years ago, they
decided it would be of great value if they also could
outdo us in sports, specifically in the Olympics, the
accepted international yardstick of athletic prowess.
Their long-range planning is now beginning to
pay dividends. My experience as a competitor in the
past two Olympics Richards won the pole-vault
competition in both 1952 and 1956 Ed. leads me to
predict that we're going to be trounced in the 1960
Olympiad, both in the winter games beginning Feb.
18 in Squaw Valley, Calif., and in the summer games
in Rome.
In 1952, the first year the Russians decided to
compete in the Olympiad (they skipped the winter
games in Norway), they won only 22 'gold first
place medals while we walked off with 40. We won
a total of 76 medals for first, second, and third
places (including both men's and women's events) ;
the Russians won 69.
By 1956, the pendulum had swung the other way,
not completely, but enough to make it clear the
Russians were taking giant strides while we were
standing still. They copped 16 gold, silver, and
bronze medals to our seven in the winter games, and
98 to our 74 in the summer events.
In 1960, their superiority probably will be even
more pronounced, and Americans will ask: "Can't
we even win the Olympics?" Some will blame the
athletes. But the simple answer is that we don't
emphasize the Olympics as other nations do, the
Russians in particular.
I spent some time in Russia, not enough to make
a thorough study of its Olympic program but
enough to form what I feel are valid opinions. One
thing that struck me was that only Olympic sports
are stressed. Russia even has a "fitness break" in its
factories, where worker-athletes are given an hour
off to train. As a result, it had more than 18 mil
lion athletes trying out for Olympic berths; I'd be
surprised if our aspirants exceed 18,000.
The Russians not only have a thousand times more
Olympic hopefuls than we do, but they have bal
ance, too. We emphasize track and field events and
always have done well in them; we probably will
again this year. But other events that count just as
much in the scoring are almost totally ignored.
You'll see this in the winter games when we are
snowed under in skiing, bobsledding, and hockey,
to name a few.
Women's events also count the same in the
results. But how many of our girls participate in
sports? If it weren't for the efforts of the coach at
Tennessee A & I, we wouldn't even be able to field
a team, inferior as it's likely to be.
It's not a question of not having the facilities to
train a victorious Olympic squad. In most parts of
the U. S., there are enough gymnasiums and stad
iums but just try to use them. More than likely,
you'll find the doors securely bolted. We pay taxes
for these facilities, yet we can't use them.
In Russia, I saw parks, playgrounds, gyms, and
stadiums with wonderful equipment. And, believe
me, the equipment was in constant use by those
enthusiastic youngsters, Russia's future Olympians.
Another big reason why we'll lose the Olympics
is because our code of amateur athletics is hope
lessly antiquated. In other countries, not only Rus
sia, athletes are given an even break. Here we do
our best to hinder them.
If our amateur athlete works by the hour and
takes time off to compete, he doesn't get reimbursed.
He receives a dollar a day for incidental expenses
and seven dollars a day for meals. I'm not suggest
ing that we pay our amateur, but he should not have
to suffer a financial loss to compete. Employers
should be encouraged to make up the difference.
One way to compensate the athlete and make sure
that we'll have fine future Olympic teams would be
to set up a Junior Olympic Village every summer
where youngsters could go for training by athletes
who are themselves Olympic participants. If we
could do this and pay the athletes to instruct the
kids we'd be taking care of both present Olympic
teams and those for the future.
There is little we can do to change the results of
the 1960 Olympics, but there is much that we can
do to see that it will never happen again.
The first thing is to increase interest in Olympic
sports. This is a job for all of us. It has to be done on
a community basis. We have already proved that it
will work. Look at our Little League Baseball and
the AAU Junior Swim Program. We could easily
devise similar local programs for Olympic sports
and have community champs compete until we pro
gress to a regional champion, a state champion, and
conceivably a national champion.
Potentially we're the greatest athletes in the
world. Now that we've been challenged, it's up to
us as individuals and as a nation to develop our raw
talent. It's there. Let's use it.
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COVER:
The little girl in the photo by Virienne is
cutting out hearts for Valentine's Day. Al
ready a charmer, chances .are she'll be
many a heart's desire in just a few years.
Weeldy
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