Fearing that the Amateur Athletic Union’s opposition to the Berlin Olympic Games would hurt fund-raising, leaders of the American Olympic Committee are gathering their forces to have Jeremiah T. Mahoney ousted as president of the A.A.U., the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned on unimpeachable authority today.
Failing this, it was learned, the Olympics czars will either set up a rump association or will take only college men, for whom the A.A.U.’s certification is not required.
This is the gist of plans brewing in high Olympics places as Mr. Mahoney, A.A.U. president, continues with his determined opposition to holding the games in Berlin because of Nazi discrimination against Jewish athletes.
All non-college athletes must be certified to the International Olympics Committee by the A.A.U. as things stand at present. But the A.A.U. is meeting in New York this December and if, with Mahoney’s support, the organization decides against Olympics participation, there will be great difficulty in having athletes certified.
The Olympic “gods” are at present concentrating on forcing the A.A.U. to oust Mahoney by having him turned down when he comes up for re-election as president. But Mahoney is popular, and the Olympic heads do not entertain great hope of succeeding in this move.
Besides certification, another consideration which is giving Olympics heads no end of worry is funds. The money to finance the American team must come entirely from voluntary contributions.
The committee heads realize that fund-raising will be a difficult business this year because of the rising tide favoring a boycott of the games. Prospective coaches and officials of the American team have been informed they must be prepared to pay their own expenses, otherwise persons who can pay will be named.
On the public relations end, the committee heads are preparing to use the argument that so few Jews are likely to be named to American teams that it is unfair to ask the others to refrain from competing. There is not a word about Catholic opposition.
Meanwhile, the South Atlantic Association’s delegates to the A.A.U. convention were under orders today to vote against participation in the games. The decision was taken at a convention being held in Baltimore.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
