Why? The Science of Athletics

372 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS aimed at by the whole community. Men at all periods of life, whether past the age of competition or not, went daily to the Palaestra and the Stadium. The athlete who won an Olympic olive crown became a national hero, in whose honour a breach was made in the walls of his native city at his home-coming, to show that the com– munity that could breed such a man needed no other defences. The populace, tgo, were just critics of athletic achievement, while the men who excelled at the Games were, as often as not, descendants of former Olympic champions. For example, Diagoras, a Rhodian, who was twice successful at Olympia, lived to witness the crowning of his sons and grandsons, and a contemporary testified to the veneration in which the veteran was held by exclaiming, at the crowning of one grandson, "Die, Diagoras, for thou canst not be a god !" Human life to-day becomes more sedentary with the passing of each decade. , Modern methods of transport, and the task of earning one's daily bread, make exercise almost a luxury, and long hours cf work a constant burden. Yet, from stock that often shows an unsatisfactory medical history during former generations, the twentieth century has ~volved an athletic type more beautiful and more efficient than the highest Greek ideal. From men and women who had given scant thought to concerted physical endeavour until chance revealed their athletic poten– tialities, we continue to produce champions and record-;– breakers, whose feats, we suppose, completely eclipse those of the heroes who wore the olive crowns in the hey– day of the world's youth, whel). victory at the Olympic Games represented the highest prize the most civilized people on earth could strive for. Athletic Types– Runners We come now to the consideration of particular types of athlete, and again, as in the case of the sprinter whose characteristics have already been discussed, we find the runners coming in all sorts of shapes and Sizes individually, That is only natural, for one has