This Soviet hockey team won the

‘Peace and brotherhood’

ympic championship.

hit new high at Cortina

By LESTER RODNEY

By the time you read this, the Winter Olympics will

be over and you will know all

about the victory of the Soviet Union, which highlighted the events here at Cortina. But
Opening ceremonies were so impressive that I want to tell you the story in detail, the
Teason being simply that it was an overwhelming, irresistible moment of peace and brother-

Tt was, in a flash, the preview of what the mass of humanity yearns for, a world

in which each people, proud of its own culture, flag and merits, shakes hands in natural
ease with all othets, with the very thought of war a distant, forgotten wightmare, and the
true feelings of people, released at last, carrying away the past like a mighty torrent.

Do actual people here on this certainly all over Italy, too, were
yecen of the opening cere- bursting with pride as the Olym-
The ajtuink and feel like pet ic host for the first time. Un-
€ answer, ‘on this historic P in themselves, many
Morning, is yes, yes, yes! jable to contain e ; He
In the plaza, as the teams of 32 happily burst into tears as y
Nations began assembling, it was applauded the young people of
the manner of approaching each other countries marching with-
geet) with curiosity, light ban- out guns. Europe is very gun-
Mage in the shy warmth of conscious and gun-weary.
Young Germans from East and: Peace is the uppermost word
West, under the same flag, toward jn these peoples’ minds in a way
“ach other. hard for visitors from the United
It was in a hundred little |States to understand. How men
Vignettes, like a woman from little windows here bore just ee
Bel “western world” team of |two flags of the U.S. and the
Sium, afte ing pins | USSR. aura
ith pine SERN hates Such eloquent Su sacohd ; ‘
Union, suddenly embracing her | peace, peace, let these wo ve :
Tessing face to face, and then | ways walk together in pete i
Tapidly and wordlessly leaving. | now and’ none of us need worry
he Italian people, here and about our children,

» when he tripped
ic torch into the

pwitm at Cortina, “I didn’t let the flame go out,” he told se
“ters who interviewed him later. “Remem

it go out.”

The U.S. team received a nice
hand down the line. They were
the runaway sartorial hit, with
white’ fur coats, gaudy red fur
hats, blue pants and red gloves.

There were plentiful cheers
for all, but down the streets of
Cortina the fact is that the
big one-two punch came at the
end. The combination of the
Soviet team, last in alphabetical
order, with the women and men
blending voices in a lovely
Russian song, and then the host
Italian team winding it up with
a tremendous wallop.

Let’s face it, which for an Am-

-| erican abroad is not necessarily to

his taste, next to their own Ital-
ian team the sustained ovation of
the day went to the team from the
land of socialism.

If you try to figure it out, in
the context of the feeling about
peace of this day, it had to be at
least partly because these were
a people where no high official
speaks about bringing the world
to the brink of atomic war.

And then I suppose it could
pick up a litle steam from the
faet that this is a land where
10 million people vote for im-
mediate socialism, and these
stalwart young athletes are
from the big country which first
took socialism out of the cate-
gory of daydreaming.

Inside the packed stands roar
their greetings as the athletes
file in and dip their flags for
President of the Republic Gron-

chi. .The peculiarly -stirring
national anthem blares out as
Gronchi salutes. The flags form’
a semi-circle touching each other. |

People who undoubtedly would |
have thought of it as a nice bit
of ritual for those who like such
things, feel their hearts swell in
this melange of color and
nationalities as a blaze of colored
rockets signalizes the arrival of
the Olympic flame, and Italian,
skating champion, Guido Caroli, |
holding the torch aloft, circles the
arena on skates, climbs the steps,
and to the blare of trumpets
lights the huge Olmpic torch. |

As he stands there, erect and
handsome, next to the Olympic
flame} at the -end of the stadium
with the white peaks of the Dolo-.
mites behind “him, the solemn.

Olympic hymn bursts forth.

Let me inform you, it was quite

ia- sient.

Bert Whyte's

ad

 SPORTLIGHT

AN old Toronto friend of mine,
Lucille Giscome, has been
living in Prague, Czechoslovakia
for the past several years, work-
ing for New China News Agency.
This week an airmail letter from
Lucille arrived at the office,
telling us how our Canadian
hockey team was received by
the: Czech people. You will re-
member that the Kitchener -
Waterloo Dutchmen played two
exhibition games in Prague be-
fore proceeding to Cortina.

Lucille Giscome writes:

“The K-W Dutchmen won
themselves thousands of. ad-
mirers here in Czechoslovakia.
The friendliness and good sports-
manship they displayed during
their stay in Prague was praised
by the Czechs just as highly as
their brilliant hockey. The
Canadians spontaneously linked
arms with their Czech rivals
for informal photographs taken
by Canadian players, and their
modest, genial attitude through-
out was a striking departure
from that of the hard-boiled,
cud-chewing ‘professionals’ for-
merly encountered from the
West.

“At the games, what really
impressed the Czech spectators
(accustomed as they had be-
come to the murderous intent of
some players on Western teams)
was the fact that no expulsions
were earned. When Laufman
struck his head on the ice after
a quite accidential collision with
Czech defenseman Libral which
floored both men, the audience
as one voiced their sympathy
and concern. And the papers
caried news about his slight

Canada’s figure skating team of Dafoe and Bowde

concussion and congratulations
en his quick recovery which
enabled him to go en to Cor-
tina with his team.

“Under the headline ‘What
the Canadian hockey players
taught us,’ the Czech trade union
paper Prace wrote: ‘They taught
us that we must play hard and
expertly around the goal, that
the .wings must hold parallel
positions, not playing aeross the
geal but playing to centre- for-
wards, and centre-forwards to
goal. The Canadians are ‘fast
starters, excellent skaters. They
have strong arms, are expert

at passing with their special,
1

long hockey sticks which have
a wide sweep.’

“Prace added that after the
games Czech trainers discussed
the Dutchmen’s tactics, criti-
cized their own hockey short-
comings, and announced that
all useful pointers learned from
the Canadians would be adopted

“In hockey training for young-

sters and adults here.

“The youth paper Mlada
Fronta praised the speed of the
K-W forwards, the precise

’ shooting, the long passes in

front of the goal and the Can-
ucks’ dexterity in angling the
puck from a pass into a goal
shot.”

Poor see * «

Thanks, Lucilie. i’'m sure PF
readers will find these com-
ments most interesting.

Following the defeat of our
Canadian team at the hands of
both the U.S. and USSR teams,
we know that we have some-
thing to learn, too. We'll be
‘out to win back that world title
next year!

nm won

a silver medal for second place at Cortina, while the relatively
unknown couple shown above, Barbara Wagner and Bob
Paul of the Toronto Skating Club, finished sixth.

FEBRUARY 1%, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 11