“ane cra areca ppeneteren mers seen % A state sponsored sports plan pays off +& Mel What can be accomplis. lbourne success story © MELBOURNE hed when the state backs a national sports and recreational program was ably demon- strated in the recent Olympic Games here. And we're referring to a capitalist state, not the Soviet Union, for this first-hand example. Australia, with a population just half that of Canada, plac- ed third in the Olympics. Their swimmers and women Sprinters were in many ways the sensation of the competi- tion. Australia’s success story has a simple background. It is a 80vernment-sponsored, coun- try-wide sports program, the most extensive in the English- Speaking world and a keen, competitive urge to excel. Gordon Young, a native of Guelph; Ontario, is one of the key men behind this success Story. Young has been physi- cal education director for New South Wales since 1938. Prior to coming to Australia he was ° a YMCA instructor at London, Ontario. _ In New South Wales he is in-charge of. the sports activi- ties of 250,000 children, age 12 and over, “There is nothing complica- ted about our system,” he told reporters. “It is the same throughout Australia. The key ls that every primary teacher Must take a two-year physical education course. --“As a result every teacher has a background of sports Knowledge. Every school in the country devotes one afternoon @ week exclusively to sports ~ pions. and every school child is taught the fundamentals of all sports.” Fundamentals are put into ~ practice on sports afternoons, and. better-than-average ath- letes compete with other schools every week in their school life as part of the plan- ned program. “Our idea,” Young said, “is to avoid stupid searching for potential champions. If you have thousands interested it’s only natural you’ll get cham- Youngsters of 12 are the real potential and they should show world class ere finishing high school.” Truth of Young’s assertion is that 17-year-old Murray Rose won three gold medals in swimming, 17-year-old Betty Cuthbert won three gold med- als in sprints and teeners Lor- raine Crapp and Dawn Fraser splashed their way to several world records. There are no professional coaches in Australia and most of the Aussie athletes had no international competitive ex- perience prior to the Games. Before the government took over supervision of sports there wasn’t one cinder track in the couhtry. Now there are eight. South Africa may be hit with sports bar >-~-Is it time to put up the sports bar to the country which by its vicious application of the color bar has rendered itself liable to that extreme penalty? Father Trevor Huddlestone, leading figure in the fight against apartheid in South Africa until his return to a post.in Yorkshire, certainly thinks so, and marshals these arguments in his favor: . lm view of the immense Importance of the trial on a treason charge of over 140 South Africans, I wish to re- iterate a suggestion made long €fore this new horror. __ “It seems to me highly in- congruous that England should 80 on playing cricket against (white) South Africa at this Most crucial moment of racial tension.” : ’ : Father Huddlestone links the size of the present. trial With those of Nazi Germany and asks: ~ “Would the M.C.C. have taken cocktails with Goebbels? Or played a friendly game with the S.8.? Or stayed in a hotel within a mile or two of Bel- sen?” ; Many British sportsmen, who have considered the prob- lem, believe that the right ans- wer is not in using sport to further political demands, however right they may be, but in taking the strongest possible action when sport it- self is affected. And that it most certainly is by the policy of apartheid. British sportsmen, for their own good name, should press for the end of the color bar in South African sport — and an end before the Empire Games at Cardiff. Canadians, who are also looking forward to Car- diff, should take a similar stand. a * Olympic star Jon Hendricks (above) is one of the many swim stars produced by Aus- tralia’s state-aided sports program, which other countries are now discussing. The plan has turned out top tennis players, track and field medal-winners, and a galaxy of superb swimmers, Empire Games. Hendricks performed at UBC pool in Vancouver during the British Subject for debate: should the — Olympics be thrown wide. open? By MICHAEL DOWNING Revolutionary suggestions came recently from two well-known athletic com-_ mentators: that future Olympic Games should be declared open to both avowed pro- fessionals and amateurs. What the blood pressure reactions of Avery Brundage, the voluble American president of the Internat one can imagine. Brundage was the man who led an abortive attempt to * make amateurs swear not only that they were amateurs but that they did intend to re- main so after the Games in Melbourne. The latest Open Games sug- gestion comes from Norris and Ross McWhirter, co-editors of the specialist British monthly Athletics World. ' Their attempt to untangle the complex of contradictions that has arisen over the defi- nition of amateurism is a worthy one. ‘It may even have anticipat- ed in premature-fashion the day when the distinction in sport between amateurism and professionalism finally dis- appears. I am not one of those who see anything intrinsically good in being an unpaid sport per- former rather than a paid one. In fact this attitude of su- periority toward profession- alism has largely been wiped away. : For example, when the cost of sending the British athletic contingent to Melbourne was being discussed at a press con- ference, Olympic team manag- er Jack Crump was quite un- equivocal in his: statement: “We are more than grateful for the financial support which our professional brothers are giving,” . The fact that sportsmen from the East and the United States, either by state aid or by state scholarships, are al- lowed to devote the lion’s s) share of their time to train-— ing is said to affect their ama- teur status. As a matter of fact, state-aid seems just about the biggest oF { retty mermaid Esther Williams (above) may play the leading role in a movie based on the life of Babe Didrickson Zaharias, who succumbed to cancer last Sep- tember at the age of 42. Babe’s career included basketball, baseball, lacrosse, golf and track. She was often called “the world’s greatest athlete.” ional Olympic Committee, will be to this bogy of the lot. ‘ What does it involve? In Eastern Europe, in some cases, athletes’ jobs are sinecures (at key times like Olympic year) which continue to pay wages despite absence on training or trips abroad. In many cases the charges are exaggerated, but in any case there are parallel cases in Britain just as unworthy of these sneers. But if is easily forgotten that the much maligned state assistance makes the very games themselves possible, for amateur sport could never stage such a spectacle un- aided. It is also as easily and as conveniently ignored by some that in this modern day and age state-aid for the provision of all the necessary sports and recreational facilities is a very proper charge on the state. But back to the McWhirter point of departure, what's to be done about the 1960 Games in Rome? They suggest open events, but with no cash prizes, just, the traditional gold, silver and bronze medals. At least this recognizes the only real amateur definition that is worth anything at all— that the amateur does not get paid for actually performing at his sport. I think Messrs. McWhirter have hit on something, but I am equally sure the idea is at least two Olympics before its time — from officialdom's viewpoint anyway. JANUARY 18, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 15-