In Pursuit of a National Olympic Team: James G. Merrick and the 1920 Canadian Olympic Track and Field Trials

Following the First World War, Canadian Olympic Committee President James G. Merrick organized an extensive recruitment scheme to assemble the Canadian track and field team for the 1920 Antwerp Games in hopes of reigniting sporting nationalism from coast to coast. Although not a total failure, I argue that Merrick mismanaged arrangements for the track and field team in two important ways. First, he failed to consider the regional implications of sending Coach Walter Knox on an education and recruiting tour of British Columbia and the Prairie Provinces, but not the Maritime Provinces. Secondly, by planning a large-scale system of provincial, regional and national trials in the midst of economic recession, and holding the national finals in Montreal, Merrick gave Central Canadian athletes - Quebec and Ontario - financial and temporal advantages not afforded to their counterparts in the Prairies, Maritimes or British Columbia, stoking the flames of regional discontent. When the national track and field team finally left for Antwerp, therefore, Merrick had made little progress towards a truly national sporting culture.