Press service. English edition, no.5

              OLIMPIADA    POPULAR    DE BARCELONA
22-26 Juliol 1936
SECRETARIAT: BARCELONA
Rambla S. Monica, 25 = Telèfon 24010 =
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ENGLISH EDITION
The Importance and Extent of the Peoples'  Olympiad in Barcelona Greatest occasion in the year's International Sport
P/O.   Barcelona, 8th. June,        In the course of the last weeks the whole character of the Peoples' Olympiad at Barcelona has changad,    Hither to only a sport institution with a large international representation, such a description of it would now be not nearly adequate,     The Peoples' Olympiad 
is now the only and the greatest demonstration in the year's international 
sport.
Its extent has grown as not even the organising committee could have foreseen.       
The idea of the Peoples' Olympiad has not only set going a movement phantastic proportions in Spain but has found an echo in foreign countries which is reflected in the daily growing number of entries. The press is filled more and more not only with propaganda for the Peoples' Olympiad but with information about sporting questions and innumerable details 
connected with the Barcelona Olympiad.       In France above all preparations 
for the sending of a delegation are in full swing in every town. The number of entries now to hand would place the number of participants at 1200.       Switzerland, Belgium, England, Holland, the U.S.S.R., etc, continue 
to send lists of participants.       To-day the number of sportsmen of all kinds was announced by the organising committee as 10,000.       In addition there will be thousands of onlookers from all parts of the world. The popular character of this Olympiad reveals itself more and more clearly Workers' Sports Organisations from all countries as well as official groups to whom the Olympian idea can only be anti-fascist announce their participation.
Representatives of the most different races will be there. The words of the manifesto have been realised:    the Peoples' Olympiad unites in brotherhood all peoples and races, it is the great demonstration against Berlin, against fascism in sport, for the free cultural development of. mankind.
Sportsmen of all countries crowd to the Peoples' Olympiad, turning against the distortion of those ideals which they hold dearest.       What can already be seen of the preparations for the Berlin Olympiad is enough to repell any honest sportsmen with horror at these unfair ways.       But hitherto he did not know where to go instead.       The Peoples' Olympiad at Barcelona shows him a way and a goal:   the uniting of all antifascist sportsmen from whatever camp they may come.     These facts explain the great success of the Olympic games at Barcelona.       A gap has been filled in the front that is pledged to maintain and defend the Olympic spirit.
Attacks are proof of the strength of any movement.     Under the cloak of defending "neutral'' sport, attempts are made to discredit the Olympic Games at Barcelona.       They are denounced as a party affair and their sporting 
level is doubted.       To both those attacks one answer gcan be given: the entries from sporting organisations of all sides and tendencies, the spirit of these Olympian games themselves, their manifesto - all show that all sides and parties join in forming the character of this truly brotherly demonstration.       Only one condition is necessary for participation: the true sporting spirit and an honest will against fascism.       And what about
the sporting achievements of the Olympiad?      Sixteen teams of international rank will enter for the football.       First class teams of the official French Rugby union will compete with equally fine teams from other countries. In the international section a hundred meters will be run in not over 10.6 seconds;    swimmers, boxers, chess-players will be of the same level. The