Why? The Science of Athletics

THE BUILD OF THE ATHLETE American and other negroes and coloured athletes, and then we can at least make some attempt to arrive at the secret of their staggering and continued successes. In this connection I think a little history will help consider– ably. At the American Indoor Track and Field Champion– ships, I935, held at the famous Madison Square Garden, New York, four sprinters came through to contest the final of the 6o metres l:lash. They were Ben J ohnson, J esse Owens (Figs. I 28 and I 3 I), Eulace Peacock, and Sam Maniaci. The three first-named were negroes, and the other an American of Italian extraction. It has to be remembered that America's twenty leading sprinters were entered for that championship, which is tantamount to saying that the contenders for the title were the world's top class, and yet those four finalists flashed across the line in the order Johnson (Fig. I2g), Owens, Peacock and Maniaci. Only by a miracle of ~ad luck was Ralph Metcalfe, the defending champion, defeated in the semi-final, otherwise the final would have been an all black affair. In his semi-final heat Owens made a new world's record of 6·6 secs. That time was equalled by J ohnson in the final. Normally the preponderance of negroes in this race might have been regarded as no more than a coincidence ; but at the Millrose Games, also held at the Garden, a few weeks earlier, Owens, J ohnson and Peacock finished three-up iB the dash. Now let us look a year back to the Indoor National Championship, and we find Metcalfe, J ohnson and Owens again three up for the negro peoples. At the time, people who argue without thinking con– tended that results achieved indoors on boards and at so short a distance as 6o metres mean very little, because, they said, "real sprinting is done outdoors on cinders and at a roo yards or a furlong". Very well, but how are those people going to account for the fact that in the preceding six-years negroes had won the I oo yards, or I oo metres, American Championship