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By BERT WHYTE
MOSCOW

The 19th Olympic Games will
oon take place in Mexico City
nd, in the words Of One sports
ommentator, “the whole world
vill be in the grandstand.”

It’s not much of an ¢xaggera-
ion. Television brings the world
nto our living rooms these days,
nd it is estimated that 500 mil-
ion viewers in more than 100
countries will follow the games
n TV.

This is a far cry from the first
lympic Games held in 776 B.C.
n the plain near the Small city
f Olympia in ancient Greece.
Jn that historic occasion the
mly scheduled evemt was a foot
ace, and the winner Was crown-
d with a laurel wreath,

The Olympics gained in popula-
ity but under the Roman emper-
rs of a later period they deteri-
rated into professional carni-
mals and were finaly banned by
he Emperor Theodosius jn 394
KG.

The modern Olympic Games
vere first held in Athens jn 1896
m the initiative of Baron Pierre
ie Coubertin, a French jntellec-
ual who believed that better in-
ernational understanding could
ye fostered through the yniver-
al medium of youth’s Jove of
thletics. Nine nations partici-

vated in the 1896 reviva] of the
Yympic Games. This year, at
Miexico City, about 8,000 ath-
etes from more than 109 coun-
ries are expected to Compete.

Gold, silver and bronze med-
is are awarded for first, second

and third places in each event,
and officially no country “wins”
the Games. But an unofficial
points score is always kept and
finds its way into sports record
books. This unofficial score
shows that the United States
“won” 11 of the 12 Olympic
Games held between 1896 and
1952—the year the Soviet Union
competed for the first time.

There was global interest in
how Soviet’athletes. would per-
form at Helsinki in 1952. The
answer was Startling. Soviet
sportsmen won 22 gold, 30 silv-
er and 19 bronze medals, and
tied for first place with the
United States in the unofficial
points tally.

Since then, at Melbourne,
Rome and Tokyo, Soviet athletes
have carried off top honors in
the unofficial scoring. And at
Mexico City they seem likely to
repeat their previous successes.

I’m neither a prophet, nor the
son of a prophet, but as a one-
time sports reporter I'd like to
make a few pre-Olympic pre-
dictions on how Soviet athletes
will fare in Mexico. Before en-
gaging in this crystal-gazing, a
few words on the reasons for
the U.S.S.R.’s meteoric rise from
nowhere to become the world’s
leading power in the sports
world.

To begin with, no one country
has a monopoly on talent in any
sphere, including sports. But the
day is long past when “natural”
amateur athletes, training in
their spare time after working
fours,- and usually without ade-

quate facilities, can hope to com-
pete successfully in internation-
al competitions.

Here is where the question of
the -state comes in. It can ap-
proach the problem in two ways.
One is to seek to develop a
group of star athletes, mostly
through lavish funds spent by
colleges and universities. This
method is popular in the United
States and it has succeeded in
producing many world. record
holders.

The second method is to adopt
a broader program and introduce
a nation-wide, all-embracing sys-
tem of physical education as an
organic part of the life of youth,
with the object of improving the
health of the whole population.
This was the Soviet plan, and
the emergence of Olympic med-
al-winners is simply a_ by-
product of a general state policy
on health.

In the Soviet Union almost
nine million young people go in
for track and field sports, over
seven million . play volleyball,
nearly five million football, more
than four million basketball and
half a million hockey.

But they couldn’t do these
things if the government, trade
unions and other organizations
didn’t build innumerable sports
fields, stadiums, football grounds,
volleyball courts, and hockey
rinks, The U.S.S.R. has about
3,000 large stadiums, 37,000
gyms, and 485,000 sports grounds,
plus thousands of swimming
pools, ice rinks and indoor ath-
letics arenas. This is why 54
million Soviet citizens—almost
one in four of the population—
take part in sports. It is another
example of the superiority of
the socialist system over capital-
ism. And its crowning achieve-
ment is not the winning of med-
als in international sports meets,
but the fact that life expectancy
has doubled since pre-revolu-
tionary times.

And now for some predictions
concerning the Olympic Games
in Mexico.

Track and field events are still
the top attraction, and in the
sprints the United States is like-
ly to retain its traditional sup-
remacy. One factor which might
seriously harm U.S. chances is
the projected boycott by Negro
athletes in the U.S. who are
considering such action as a
method of advancing their strug-
gle for civil rights.

The Soviet’s best bet in the
100-metre dash is Vladislav Sa-
peya. In the 10,000 metres Leo-
nid Mikitanko is a possible win-
ner. Either Valery Skvortsov or
Valentin Gavrilov could take the
high jump. Igor Ter-Ovanesian,
world record-holder, should win
the broad jump, though he is
getting on in years—30. Viktor
Saneyev, 23, has a good chance

in the hop, step and jump. And _

Romuald Klim will be a tough

competitor in the hammer
throw. Then there is Janis Lusis,
world record holder and favorite
to cop the gold medal in the
javelin event. <2

In women’s track and field I
like Vera Korsakova to take the
80-metre hurdles and Madazhda
Chizhova to win the shot-put.

Soviet weightlifters should do
well, notably Mikhail Kurentsov
in the welterweight division and
Leonid Zhabotinsky, the 1964
Olympic: gold medal winner, in
the heavyweight class. Not to
forget bantamweight Gennady
Chetin and _ light-heavyweight
Jan Talts.

The Soviet Union should make
a fine showing in gymnastics.
Among the men, Mikhail Voro-
nin is tops, and among the wo-
men, Natalya Kuchinskaya, 19
years old and a strong opponent
for world-famous Vera Caslav-
ska of Czechoslovakia.

Turning to free-style wrestl-
ing, ’'d say keep an eye on Ali
Aliyev in the bantamweight di-
vision, and Alexander Medved,
best of the heavyweights.

In Graeco-Roman wrestling
the lads from the U.S.S.R. should
dominate the scene. I’ll mention

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