Why? The Science of Athletics

HEAT, LIGHT AND ENERGY 337 instead of making their muscles viscid, seemed to have a tonic effect. One sees the same thing in the Norwegian mountains, where men ski in a pair of shorts and, when thoroughly warm, roll themselves in the snow quite naked. Normally, however, the advice given earlier in this book, to the effect that the athlete should be really warm before he strips to compete, should resume his clothing between heats or trials, and get back to the dressing room and dress warmly immediately after competition, should be rigidly adhered to. In the ordinary way of things, muscles will not function at full efficiency unless they are thoroughly warm, and loss of body heat means loss of energy in most cases. In the summer, however, no chance should be lost of allowillg the naked body to absorb sunshine. That the value of body heat to the athlete is now universally recognized is obvious. At the time H. F. V. Edward was winning all his wonderful races I remember how the late Sam Mussabini, his coach, used to have him on the massage tabk 'wrapped up in a blanket and how h.e would ascertain that Edward's bodily temperature was just right before he would send him out to race. I remem– ber, too, as I said earlier in this book, how at one cele– bration of the Olympic Games the Finnish team manager, waiting at the winning post, whipped Paavo Nurmi into his sweat suit the moment the run was over and hurried him away to the dressing room;· where he was put on the table and massaged through his clothes. The Finnish theory was that Nurmi's temperature should be kept at what it was when he won his heat until he went out to win his final. Or again, Harry Simmons, the high jumper, who I looked after myself, once told me, after he had joined the R.A.F. and so passed out of my ken, that he found he could always jump best when he had put himself into a profuse sweat by playing a hard game of squash as a limbering up process. I remember also, one rather dull y