Athletic Training

144 ATID.,ETIC TRAINING The original idea of a relay race was the carrying of a message, each runner passing it on to his successor. In this way mails were once carried in the far West, and messages have been similarly relayed in times _of war. The Swedish Olympic Committee made an im– provement in the relay races ·at the Olympic games held at Stockholm in 1912. The Ameri– can college method had always been for each runner to touch hands with the man who fol– lowed. This touch-off is made within a 20- foot zone in front of the starting line. The Swedes improved upon this by substituting for the touch-off the passing of a baton, a piece of wood about a foot in length which each runner had to hand to his successor within the prescribed zone. This change did away with the problem, often difficult, of de– termining whether or not a runner was ac– tually "touched off" by his predecessor. It likewise revised the original idea of carrying a message. The American athletes at Stock– holm were unfamiliar with this sort of relay racing, and the 400-metre team was disquali– fied in the trials for failure to pass the baton within the prescribed zone. With a little