1912 Olympic Games Official Report Part 2

Polo Competitions of the Fifth Olympiad ought, unconditionally, tobe adopted in future trials of skill in the events mentioned.In this connection a word may be said respecting a circumstancethat could hardly have escaped the observation of a great many people,with regard to the system adopted for awarding points in the Gamesas a whole, and for instituting a comparison between the nations takingpart in the Fifth Olympiad. Throughout the whole of the Games,the same points were awarded for the team competitions as for theindividual events, so that a nation whose representatives won a teamevent did not obtain more points than one whose representative wonan individual competition. The very fact that a nation cannot entermore than one team for a team competition, and thus cannot gainmore than one prize, while — granting sufficient skill — nothing canprevent a nation from carrying off all three prizes in an individualevent, is certainly a great injustice, being so much to the disadvantageof the teams. But, apart from this point of view, a team competitionought, per se, to count for more than an individual competition, as itrepresents more directly a struggle for supremacy between the nations,and there is, thus, every reason to ask whether an alteration in thisrespect should not be made for future Olympiads.According to the official method of calculating points, the relativeposition of the Nations in the Swimming- and Diving competitions was :GermanySwedenGreat BritainAustralasiaU. S. A.CanadaBelgiumAustriaNation 1:st Prize 2:nd Prize 3:rd Prize Points750