Why? The Science of Athletics

SOME MATHEMATICS IN ATHLETICS 247 total time taken. His lap times were 65, 65, 64, 64 secs. and he covered the first half mile in 2 mins. I o secs. and the second half mile in 2 mins. 8 secs. From Berney J. Wefers's description of the race, and from what the Rev. W. E. Lutyens has told me recently, it does not appear as though Conneff attempted to run to schedule, but rather that he ran as the exigencies of the race required and therefore could possibly have held his own with the Cunninghams, Lovelocks, Bonthrons and . Beccalis of the twentieth century. The early pioneers of scientific athletic instruction concerned themselves with "effect", and dimly appre– hended "cause", but they missed the third great factor, which is the "proof" by quantitative measurement of the ,connection between any two or more actions. The doyen of modern distance runners is Paavo Nurmi of Finland, who has held practically every distance record, from one mile in 4 mins. IO 2/5 secs., to I I miles I,648 yards in one hour. He has been well named "The Phantom Finn", for behind the whole sheaf of his amazing records lie hundreds of miles run in silence and solitude upon frozen, pine-fringed Finnish roads, with a battered old stop-watch for his only friend and mentor. Nurmi revolutionized modern distance running when he set himself the task of maintaining an even pace throughout his races. Why, or how, he hit upon this principle one does not know, but it is my personal belief that all too little credit for Nurmi's triumphs has been given to Jaakko Mikkol'a, Finnish Olympic Coach I920 and I924, Head Coach, Ha.rvard University, and Chief Foreign Coach at the English Summer School for Athletes. It was Mikkola who trained Nurmi in his big years. For generations it had been the custom for milers to run a fast first lap, hold as much pace as possible in the second, and ease off in the third to store up energy for a shattering final 440 yards burst. Nurmi, it has been said, did not possess a finishing sprint. The truth of the matter is that he did not need one, for he set and maintained