Athletics of To-Day for Women

CHAPTER THREE ENGLAND'S TRIUMPHANT TART HISTORY giv s u reason to believe that natural talent and athletic physique must b rather better in Great Britain than in any other part of the globe, but that w lack the g nius to improve by patient and painstaking p r ev ranc . At first riti h girl athletes seetned to create new world' records at their own sweet will. Their holding in these records was a very large one in 1919, but by 1929 they retained only fiv out of the fifty r cognised world' r cord . Many girl lost interest in the more manly forms of sport soon after th y w re released from War servic , and th growing popularity of athletics might well hav b n hort-lived in England, but for the circumstance of the Mont arlo authori– ti s cone iving a scheme for a gr at feminin ports gath ring und r th shadow of th a ino. They decid d to hold eunion Intemationale d'Education hy iqu i 'minine t d s ports at East r, 1921. V rious countri s w r approach d with a view to teams b ing nt, and in ngland The parting Life was consulted upon the matt r. Th Editor d put d Mr. Jo Palmer, a w ll known start r an tim -keep r in athl tics and a boxing ref r e, to go into the matt r ; n Mr. Palm r, in his turn, sought the advic and h lp of Maj r :M rchant (c ntre figur of front row ictur 25), form rly of the Army Phy ical Training taff, and at that tim n wly app inted Dir ctor of hy ical ~ ducation to the eg nt tr t Polytechnic, London. It was in the first w k of the ew Y ar, 1921, that the Polyt chnic girl , att nding an v ning drill clas , w re told that th r \ sa chan for som f th m t go to Mont arlo, 28