1912 Olympic Games Official Report Part 2

THE PROGRAMME.The programme was at length arranged by the Committee andembraced three events for outriggers and one for inriggers.The outriggers were for eights and fours with coxswain, and singlesculls, while the inrigger event was for fours. This programme wasready early in 1910 and was approved of by the Meeting of theInternational Olympic Committee at Buda-Pesth in 1911. The Swedishrowing experts had, consequently, included in their programmeneither coxswainless fours, nor double sculls, nor outrigged pair oars.The Rowing Committee was reproached very frequently during thefirst six months after the Buda-Pesth meeting, for having excluded theabove-mentioned types of boats. Energetic arguments were raised,both in Great Britain and in Germany, to show that just these boatsproduced the best rowing, and that in no other type was the art ofrowing so well developed as in these. Consequently, it was said, itwould be unjust to exclude these boats from a World’s Championshipfor Amateurs; the competition would lose its real sporting character,and there would be no opportunity of properly measuring the developmentof the art of rowing. The Swedish Rowing Committee, however,was of the opinion that racing with coxswainless fours and pairoar boats in strange waters, would occasion too many possible or actualfouls, with the resulting protests and loss of time, and that these inconvenienceswould not be balanced by the advantages to be gained bythe presence of the types of boat in question. As the Committee,in the summer of 1911, and in consequence of many excellent reasons,had determined to hold the Olympic Rowing Regatta in Djurgårdsbrunnsvikenand Nybroviken, with the start at Lido and the finish oppositeTorstensonsgatan, i. e., over a course which had the misfortunenot to be a straight one, it was absolutely impossible to make any alterationin the programme accepted at Buda-Pesth. Even if the course inquestion offers but few difficulties to the coxswain of a four or aneight, the Olympic sculls racing proved very plainly that it wouldhave been a fatal mistake to include coxswainless fours and pairoar boats on the waters chosen.In addition to this, experience from regattas held in other countrieshad often shown that the results obtained with these types of boatshave depended, in far too great a degree, on good or faulty steering,another circumstance which also spoke against the inclusion of theboats in question, the legitimacy of whose presence at regattas heldon certain waters, the Committee has no desire to question, however.THE COURSE.As regards the course, there were several stretches of water in ornear Stockholm that could have been chosen, such as Kyrkviken,where the Stockholm Rowing Club has frequently held its races; TyringeSound, just outside Vaxholm — of classic memory — andVaxholm Fiord; all offering good, straight courses for the necessary659