1912 Olympic Games Official Report Part 2

The water polo competition, too, was so arranged that all the teamshad the same chance of winning the second or third prize. Forexample, a team that had been beaten only once, had the right toplay for the second and third prizes against another team which wasalso qualified to play for these prizes. The principle was adhered to,however, that a team which had beaten another team was consideredto have thereby defeated all the teams beaten, direct or indirectly,by the conquered team in question, so that a team which had beentwice beaten would, in nearly every case, be definitely eliminatedfrom the contest.The division of the competitors into the various trial heats took placeby means of drawing lots, which was carried out publicly.The drawing of lots for the diving competitions took place at once,and the figure drawn for each competitor showed the order in whichhe was to start in the competitions. In drawing lots for the races,the competitors were grouped according to the nations to which theybelonged. Lots were drawn between the nations, after which lots weredrawn between the individual representatives of these nations, so that thereshould be as few as possible of the same nation in the same trialheat. The drawing of lots for the intermediate heats, after the trialshad been decided, was quite individual, i. e. irrespective of whetherseveral competitors belonging to the same nation came in the sameheat or not. The drawing of lots for the starting places in the racestook place just before each start. The drawing of lots for the waterpolo took place, first of all, within two chief groups, or pools, on theCup Tie (elimination) system, so that a team from each group metin the final.The whole of the Rules and Regulations for the Officials will befound in the section entitled “Rules and Regulations for the Competitions”,at the end of the book, and also under the heading “Instructionsfor Officials”, on page 128.ARRANGEMENTS IN THE SWIMMING STADIUM.In consequence of the regulation of the International Rules forSwimming Competitions which prescribes a course of not less than100 metres in length for the long distance races, a special SwimmingStadium had to be arranged for the Olympic Swimming Competitions.The spot was chosen at Djurgårdsbrunnsviken, close to the town,and it proved an ideal one for its purpose. A detailed account ofthe building- and other arrangements made will be found on pp.211—217 of this Report.For the convenience of the public, special arrangements were madefor the announcement of the results of the competitions at the SwimmingStadium. For example, notice-boards, visible from all the seats,were erected on the diving platform, and on these were shown theresults of the various events; in addition to which, the results werecalled out in English, German and Swedish. Every competitor hadto wear a cap of the colour fixed for his or her nation, and, in somecases, the caps bore the competitor’s starting-number. At the starting-715