ATHLETES

OF THE PRESENT AND PAST.

THE most remarkable thing with regard to athleticism of all descriptions at the present time, is the continued surpassing of former achievements, or, as it is technically called, 'the cutting of records.'

As perhaps all my readers may not be thoroughly acquainted with the subject, it will be as well to explain what a 'record' is. A 'record' is doing the very best that has ever been known to be done in anything; and although the term is more often applied to matters connected with sport than to other subjects, it is not necessarily confined to them, and a 'record' may be made in every line of life.

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A man who runs a mile in faster time than, so far as is known, it has ever been run in before, is said to establish a record' of that time. For some while past the 'record' for this distance has been 4 min. 16 sec., but recently it has been run in 4 min. 123 sec., and the record was then said to be 'cut,' and it now stands at the latter time. And so with everything else, whether in sport or in more serious business. Records are of two kinds-those that are reliable, and those about which there is a certain degree of doubt. Naturally the older ones are open to the greater suspicion, for it is paratively recent years that 'records' have been taken, and accounts kept of them, with care and precision; and so far as regards what are called times'—that is the time occupied in doing a certain thing— the means were not in existence until modern days to take them with the exactness that is now possible. The ancients did not possess watches, and no accounts whatever are preserved of whether, or how, they reckoned the time taken in running the various foot or chariot races that took place at the Olympic Games, or on other occasions. And long after watches were in constant use, it would have been impossible to register the minute fractions which are now daily noted by the aid of the modern chronographs.

Since records' have been registered with methodical exactitude, it has been found, as was only likely, that every now and again some athlete has been able to surpass what has been done before in the various branches of sport. Particularly has this been the case in recent years, but the last one has been most remarkable for the

numerous' records' which have been 'cut.' Week after week some fresh achievement has been accomplished, and there is scarcely a single branch of athletics in which one or more have not been registered. This has been so in every description of contest, and has caused astonishment to the older generation of athletes, who have seen the performances, which they had been in the habit of thinking approached the marvellous, exceeded again and again.

Does this indicate that the men of the present day are vastly superior in physical power to those of the past?

Taking the modern past first into consideration, I should say that in the majority of cases it certainly does not; the increased result of their exertions being in a great measure due to the improvements of the machines they use. This, however, is not always so; for, although in rowing, shooting, bicycling, &c., it may be, it can hardly be altogether so in running, cricket, jumping, &c. ; though even in these cases to a certain extent it is, as the improvement in the condition of the ground where the contests take place has something to do with the greater performances now accomplished.

As regards bicycling, that is an entirely modern invention, and the records of it have been kept with exactness almost from the very first. The improvements in the machines and the increase in the skill of the riders for some time were equally accountable for the faster times in which distances were continually being performed, as everything had to be discovered as to the most effectual way of utilising a man's power, and of course that was only done gradually. But I am disposed to think that now almost everything that a man can do is known, and that the faster and faster times which are continually being made are principally due to the improvements in the machines themselves and the tracks on which they are used, and that little further can be expected in the way of increased skill on the part of the riders. It certainly cannot be that those who make these faster times are as a body physically stronger than the first exponents of the art, for it is only during the present generation that the bicycle has been brought into use, and yet we find that 'records' are week by week being 'cut.'

With reference to the ancients, we know very little of the real performances of their athletes. It is only very occasionally that any of the classical historians relate details, and some of those are obviously incorrect. For instance, it is recorded that the Grecian Phayllos, with the aid of hǎlteeres' (áλτîρɛs), leaped a distance of 55 ft. 'Hǎlteeres' were something similar to our dumbbells, which the Greeks held in their hands when leaping. They put their arms back, and, swinging them forwards with a sudden motion, took the leap. There is no doubt their use enabled them to jump farther than they could have done without them. This has been proved by experience, 29 ft. 7 in. having been covered in

1854 by an athlete with weights in his hands, whereas the record' for the long jump at the annual Inter-University sports is only 22 ft. 10 in., which was made in 1874; and the longest distance ever known to have been jumped without the aid of weights is the ' record' of 23 ft. 2 in., made in 1883. But, after allowing everything for the superior skill which the ancient Greeks probably possessed in the application of the power of these hålteeres,' they being in the habit of constantly using them, it is incredible that they could have succeeded in jumping with them nearly double the distance that it has been possible to cover in modern times.

Nearly all the performances which are mentioned in ancient history are mythical, and less definite than that last referred to; but occasionally we find one, such as the account of Leander swimming the Hellespont, by which we can gauge their reputed acts, and then we generally find them, as in this instance, what would be thought nothing of at the present time. Years ago Byron, writing of this feat, says, 'as Mr. Ekenhead and I did;' and there are dozens of swimmers, if not hundreds, who would be ready to perform it today at a moment's notice. The late Captain Webb some few years back created an immense sensation by swimming from England to France across the Straits of Dover-a feat infinitely greater than Leander's. So far he is the only person who has ever done so, and his record still stands. But he lost his life in attempting to swim down the Niagara Rapids, a feat which has just been successfully accomplished by an American. Not, however, that I look upon this as a test of athleticism, as they were simply foolhardy attempts, one of which chanced to succeed when the other failed.

Take again running, to which I incidentally alluded before. It would seem that our modern athletes are able to accomplish more than those of ancient Greece.

The foot-races at the Olympic Games were of three lengthsnamely, once over the course, or 'stadion' (σrádiov), as it was called, and which became the unit of the Greek road measure, being 600 Greek feet, equal to 606 feet 9 inches English, according to Dr. W. Smith's comparative tables' (other authorities, however, differing slightly from them); twice over it-that is, from one end to the other and back again; and the third 12, 20, or 24 times over, for the various reports are not clear as to which it was. Taking the longest distance, this would only be 14,562 English feet, or just over two and three-quarter miles; and yet, when the Spartan Ladas dropped down dead on completing this course, apparently it was not considered a matter of great surprise, for it was evidently thought a wonderful performance for an athlete to be able to run so far. Now our runners would make light of such a distance, and races for twenty miles and more continually take place. I am quite aware of the saying that

1 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

6 It is the pace that kills,' and we have no means of telling at what pace the competitors at the Olympic Games went-possibly at one so great that no person at present living could emulate; and of course it would be possible to use so much exertion in running a much less distance than two and three-quarter miles that nature could not stand the strain. But it is only reasonable to suppose that a Grecian athlete would consider the distance he had to run, and regulate his pace accordingly, and would not attempt to 'sprint '-that is, to run at the highest possible speed-for the whole way; and I am rather disposed to the view that the men of the present day have greater physical power than the ancients.

To return to the moderns. No matter to what branch of athletics one looks, with a single exception to which I will refer later on, the same increase in results is found as that described in bicycling. In running at nearly every distance have records' been recently 'cut;' the same with rowing, swimming, cricket, &c.

How is this to be accounted for? Training, no doubt, has something to do with it. The system of diet and work which tends most to develop a man's muscular powers is far better understood now than it was in the past, and the quite recent past too; but there is a great deal yet to be learnt, and there is too much tendency, even now, to respect traditional ideas that have nothing but their age to recommend them. When I speak of the past in this connection, I only refer to comparatively modern times, for we know very little with certainty of the mode of training that the ancients resorted to-less, if possible, than we do of their performances. From what little we can gather, it would seem that the notion, which has not even yet quite vanished, and which was in full force very few years ago, that meat half-cooked developed strength and muscle, was accepted by some of them as a true one. Not universally, however; for we find that many of the Grecian athletes in training did not eat meat, but principally lived on fresh cheese and dried figs and wheat. Others consumed large quantities of pork and beef, and one, a Theban, who lived upon goat's flesh, became so strong that he was enabled to overcome all the athletes of his time. The idea of eating half-raw meat, which was more particularly held by the Romans, dies very hard, but is now almost exploded, together with that by which men in training were kept in a state of raging thirst. No doubt the drinking of large quantities of liquids does not tend to improve one's capacity for violent or sustained exertion, but that it can possibly be good to keep men who are living highly in a state which makes them feverish and irritable I cannot believe, and the number of those who do is continually decreasing.

Then, again, even if the men of the present are not so much physically superior to their modern predecessors, they may, and probably

do, use their powers to greater advantage, for they have the benefit of better instruction than those received who have gone before. More particularly is this the case in rowing, where the coaching,' as it is called, is much more efficient than that in force not many years ago. Year after year distances are covered more quickly than previously. In this case it is without doubt the boats, as well as the improved 'coaching,' that are to a very great extent the cause. Besides which, the whole system of boat-racing has undergone a change during the present century. For instance, as late as 1824 the mode of starting the boats for the college races at Oxford was to shut them up in Iffley Lock, and on the signal being given, the lock gates were opened, and the boats scrambled out as best they could. The usual method was for the stroke oar to stand at the bows with a boathook, and, when the gates were opened, to run down the middle of the boat on a plank or gangway, which separated the rowers on one side from those on the other, jump into his seat and begin to row; or else the stroke would push the boat out with his hands, going down the side of the boat just inside the gunwale, in which case the crew sat with their oars tossed.' Then they raced up the river to the barge that marked the end of the course.

We know that the ancients had matches in their galleys and various other descriptions of craft, although we have no definite particulars of them; but when we come to modern times, there is scarcely more difference between the warships of the Grecians and our ironclads than between the racing boats of fifty years ago and those of to-day. A reference to statistics, however, shows the curious fact that in 1845, the first time that the Oxford and Cambridge Universities rowed their race between Putney and Mortlake, which course they have adopted ever since, the time occupied was only 23 min. 30 sec., the boats rowed in being inrigged skiffs. This time has been exceeded since boats of the present pattern have been used, with outriggers, sliding seats, absence of keel, and every other improvement, and would not be considered so very bad even now, with the record' standing at 19 min. 35 sec. But this is possibly one of those times which are not reliable, and, even if it is correct, the crew may have been an exceptionally good one; and besides, so much more depends on the state of the elements in rowing than in any other sport, that, unless one knows every circumstance, mere times' . are often deceptive. For instance, the fastest time in which the championship course between Putney and Mortlake has ever been covered by a sculler was made by a quite inferior professional one, who would have had no chance whatever of beating any of the best men, although none of them have ever been able to scull the distance in the time that he did: the fact being that on the day in which

Boat Racing, or the Arts of Rowing and Training, by E. D. Brickwood. Horace Cox, 346 Strand, London, 1876.