Why? The Science of Athletics

The Negro Limit THE BUILD OF THE ATHLETE Outside the jumps and beyond the sprints there is a distinct falling off in negro ability. The dark races have produced but few outstanding quarter milers. J. B. Taylor, one of the American finalists in the 1908 Olympic 400 metres, was an exception ; the middle distances show even fewer successes, with the exception of the British · Empire half mile champion Phil Edwards, of Canada, and James Woodruff, U.S.A., 8oo metres champion in r936. One might perhaps mention two great coloured runners of British nationality, the one being H. F. V. Edward (Fig. 133), who in 1922 and on one afternoon won English championship titles at roo, 220 and 400 yards, and the other, jack London (Fig. 132), who was runner-up in the Olympic roo metres, 1928, to Percy Williams, of Canada. The negro sprinters trace back to Howard Drew, the inventor ofthe Bullet Start, who held the roo yards record of 9 3/5 seconds and the 220 yards of 2r r/5 seconds in the immediate pre-war period. At the longer distances outstanding personalities among the negroes have been Earljohnson, former U.S.A. fivemile champion and American ro,ooo metres representative r920, and G. Moore, who ran two miles in 9 mins. I r secs. Theories Regarding Negro Achievements Carl Mer:o.er, coach at Columbia Univer– sity, who produced the negro sprinter Ben J ohnson, suggests that there is no physical characteristic to account for the phenomenal rise of coloured athletes to premier athletic honours in the momentum events. On the other hand, I believe it was Doctor Adolphe Abrahams who suggested that a peculiar formation of the heel might account in some measure for the long jumping ability of the negro. Since then an American physicist, who wishes to remain anonymous, has suggested that the present position is due to the fact that the negro has been subjected to the controlling influences of civilization for a far less period than has the white man. From this ·circumstance the