Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES :record was in the keeping of E. Lemming, Sweden (Plate IX, Fig. 30), who in I9I2 threW 204ft. stins. to beatJ.J. Saaristo, Finland, who threw 200ft. ri ins. They were the only men until I9I4 who had succeeded in beating 200 ft. To-day there must be more than a hundred men capable of exceeding this distance, while the world's record is held by Matti Jarvinen, Finland, who in 1934 achieved 253 ft. 4! ins. There is also the good old-fashioned sport of throwing the r6-lb. hammer, and here we come to the only world's record which has stood since pre-War times, for it was in I9I3 that P. Ryan, an Irish-American athlete of fine physique, threw the hammer a distance of I89 ft. 6t ins. That performance was eclipsed unofficially in I937 by Dr Pat O'Callaghan, of Ireland, who threw I98ft. 8% ins. The record could not, however, be passed by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, owing to that body's dispute with the athletic authorities in the Irish Free State, which has now, happily, been settled. None the less the distance has been achieved. Finally mention must be made of the wonderful improvements that have been made in Decathlon records. The method of scor– ing in pre-War days was different from that which obtains to-day, but the record of 7900 points established by Glen Morris, U.S.A., at the Olympic Games in I936 is many hundreds of points in advance of anything that was ever achieved by the pre-War generation of all-round athletes. And now, having made what I hope will be regarded as an interesting comparison of records, let us consider for a moment the circumstances which have brought about this surprising, some people might say miraculous, improvement in the standard of world-wide athletic achievement. In the first place, I am prepared to admit freely that just as a modern celebration of the Olympic Games is apt to make the festivals of ancient Greece look like village fairs, so the increased facilities for competition, the far larger number of competitors taking part in athletics, the improvement in tracks and grounds, the better type of impedimenta, and perhaps the better health con– ditions which obtain in this modern world have all played their part in improving athletic status. There is much to be said, too, for the theory that as one record is broken, so the psychological effect upon athletes, other than the record-breaker himself, is to make them realize that that which has been accomplished by 24