Evening Star Newspaper, January 31, 1932, Page 78

4 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D C.,-;IANUARY 31, 1932 e e R SO R THE WORLD WAR ON SNOW AND ICE Sonja Henie of Norway, Olympic champien figure skater. BY DONALD FAIR MORGAN. PLACID, N. Y., for 28 years the center of competitive Winter sports in the United States, is host to the world at the Oympic Winter games, February 4 to 13. This is the first time these international sports on snow and ice have been held in America. The Olympic Winter games were launched at Chamonix, France, in 1924, when Norway emerged the winner. The second Olympic Winter games followed four years later at St. Moritz, Switzerland, where Norway was again the victor. It only remains for the stimulus derived from the Oympiad at Lake Placid to eecure recog- nition for America in international Winter sport circles—a recognition which was notoriously lacking when =ome Europeans contended that all Olympic Winter sports competitions should be held at St. Moritz, where facilities were at the time matehless for the holding of the Winter games. Within the last two years at Lake Placid have been created sports facilities adequate for the international carnival, second in tech- nical perfection to none in the world.= This represents an expenditure of $1,000,000 omn sports equipment within the confines of a mountain village. SCORE of nations are represented in the third Olympic Winter games at Lake Placid, with approximately 400 contestants in the four major fields of sport—skiing, skating, bobsledding and hockey. There will be demon- strations of sled-dog racing, curling and women'’s speed skating. Nations which have sent teams to Lake Placid include Austria, Belgium, Canads, Czechoslovakia, France, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Rumania, Sweden and Switzerland. The international tournaments on snow and ice have become the most spectacular of all modern sporting events. Never agdin during the present generation will the United States witness in actual competition the outstanding Winter sports stars of Europe, Asia and North America. Bobsledding, a sport new to America in its racing aspect, is the most thrilling and dan- gerous sport on the Olympic program. It was an expatyiate American sport which reached its seniority on the runs in Europe, and came back two years ago to the country of its origin and home of the present Olympic bobsleigh champions. This daring sport, spectacular and thrilling to observe, is accompanied by hazards greater than those faced in any other athletic sport of today. HERE are self-imposed hazards on the bob run where the best of racing teams some- times come to grief—sharp curves of halirpin, “S” and horseshoe form, with 30-foot walls of ice to negotiate at speeds up to 70 miles an hour. The danger of a spill is always present. The spill entails two extreme hazards, the prospect of capsizing on the glare-ice and losing a bob- sled weighing more than 500 pounds or crash- ing into the snow bank on the inside of the track at express train speed. Either possibility is exceedingly dangerous. Two hair-raising spills marked the first North American championships of 1931 on the Olym- pic bob run at Lake Placid. 7The German team representing the Berlin Bobsleigh Club came to grief in the Zig Zag curve, a mishap closely followed by the spill of an American team piloted by Hubert Stevens of Lake Placid. Sawdust had to be sprinkled on the iced track to reduce the speed to a polnt of probabie safety. At the high rates of racing speeds occasional spills are inevitable. All riders must wear safety armor. The young Americans early asserted their supremacy in this daring sport, because of their apparent willingness to take greater chances in negotiating the high-banked curves of glare ice. In the 1928 Winter games at St. Morits the American crews piloted by Willlam Piske and Jennison Heaton placed first and second and enabled the United States to place second to Norway in the 1928 Winter Olympiad. |JN the North American championship races of last Winter the winning team, the Red Devils of Saranac Lake, set a world’s record for bobsledding, making the one and one-half mile run in 1 minute and 52 seconds. Hunter Goodrich of Milwaukee, who placed second the North American with Swiss and German teams entered, is one of the world's best drivess, baving won many races abroad. Winter Sportsmen From14 Coun- tries Meet T his Week at Lake Placid,N.Y., to Battle for 1932 Olympic Games Skate, Bobsled and Ski1 Champi- onships. The Olympic bob run at Lake Placid, on which the four-man and two-man races will be held, is the fastest in the world It is over 2,350 meters long, or about one and one-hal! miles, and drops with an average grade of 10 per cent in a clircuituous route including 7 major curves and 14 minor ones The track is snow and ice packed through- out. Some of the curves are 25 feet high, their towering banks running up almost at right angles to the bottom. Zig Zag, which is the principal “S” curve, and Shady Corner, a hairpin turn with preceding reverse curve, are the most thrilling points of the run. In the world's championships last Winter in Germany all the American entrants were in- jured. Due to their familiarity with the Mount Van Hggvenberg run and the type of sled to be used in the Olympic races, the Americans are expected to retain their Olympic laurels won at St. Moritz in 1928. Italy, Switserland, Canada, Great Britain and France are among the entries in this thrilling event. THE speed skating events will be held in the new Olympic Stadium. Completed only last Winter, the stadium affords one of the finest layouts for outdoor ice sports to be found anywhere in the world. National and international speed skating meets have always been a regular part of Lake Placid’s Winter sports program. The Mirror Rink has cradled many Olympic champions in the past, and it is in speed skating that the ‘America’s greatest ice speed star. W hat happens when a bobsled upsets at high speed. Americans will make their most formidable threat in the 1932 Olympiad. In 1924 Charles Jewtraw wrested the 500- meter sprint from the Olympic veteran, Clas ‘Thunberg of Finland. In 1928 Irving Jaffee had the best time in the long-distance race, 10,000 meters. In the Olympic events this year America is represented by & full team of skaters for the first time. The speed skating will be run off in the American style—that is, skater against skater, rather than a series of individual speed contests against the watch, as is the method on the Continent. In the American style there is an exhibition of strategy, pace setting, jockeying and terrific ~ sprinting on the final straightaway. In some Youthful Jack Shea, who will meet Europe’s fastest skaters on the ice at Lake Placid. of the heats there are spills, and they go down, sometimes one after another, sprawling on the ice. T is stirring, competitive sport, a style of racing which works to American advantage in the Olympics. The Europeans have not had much experience with the peculiar strategy of group racing. The veteran Clas Thunberg of Finland, who has held most of the world and Olympic champlonships for the past decade, has spent a season on the American tracks, and gained some knowledge of this mode of racing. The classic event of this Olympiad will in- volve the meeting of the veteran Thunberg and the schoolboy Jack Shea, America's greatest speed star, who won the North American cham- pionship at the age of 18 and who will be in his prime for speed skating in the 1932 Winter games. It is no idle rumor to predict that he will wrest some of the Olympic laurels held so long by the perennial Finn; Shea is a marvel at all distances on the ice. The outstanding speed skating stars for the United States are Valentine Bialis, captain of the 1928 Olympic team:; Allen Potts of Brook- lyn, Eddie Schroder of Chicago, Ray Murray and Walter Rutter of New York. All of these have gone through a long siege of training at Bear Mountain, New York and Lake Placid Norway, always strong in speed skaters, has sent Bernt Evenson, former world’s titleholder, and Ivor Ballingrud, holder of the world's record for 5,000 meters. Canada has a star of the first rank, Ross Robinson of Toronto, the present North American champion. The competition will be keen in this most popular of the Winter sports. HE figure skating competitions will take place in the new Olympic Arena, the only indoor sports arena at any resort in the world. In the event of inclement weather or a thaw at Lake Placid the arena insures a full Winter sports program of hockey, figure skating and curling on every day. A great many international stars are coms= peting at Lake Placid in the figure skating for men, for women and for mixed pairs. The brilliant Miss Sonja Henie of Norway, world and Olympic champion for the past four years, is the most sensational performer, and will defend her laurels against such contenders as Miss Fritzi Berger of Austria, Miss Maribel Vinson and Miss Beatrix Loughran of the United States. Miss Lougbhran competed for America in 1924 and 1928, placing second and third in these respective meets. . The international series of hockey at Lake Placid will embrace 18 games. Hockey is the fastest game in the world. The leading sextets of the world will be in action during the games. The Winnipeg team of Canada looks the best on past performances. Canada has shown a& marked superiority in the past Olympic hockey tournaments. The best of the competitors seen in the United States are Canadians, and therefore ineligible to compete for the United States. While the college teams like Princeton and Yale have lifted the amateur sport to a high plane, it would be a surprise to see an Ameri- can team win over the Canadians. No Vehicles Needed Book Agent (to farmer): “You ought te buy an encyclopedia now that your boy is going to school.” . “Not on your life. Let him walk, the same as I did.”