ATHLETICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 225, 6 July 1939, Page 3

ATHLETICS.

DO THEY HARM WOMEN. Nearly 1200 of Britain’s foremost women athletes are now busy settling th?t much-argued question: “Are athletics harmful to women ” They have been asked by the National Fitness Council to answer an intimate questionable on their health. The 16 points of this have been framed by a medical sub-committee of the council.

It depends on the answers whether British women will in future be allowed to take part in' the big national and international athletic contests.

Mrs Muriel Cornell, lion, secretary of tlio Women’s Amateur Athletic Association, told a “Daily Mail’’ reporter “In addition to more intimate questions regarding their health, the questionaire asks for details of training, diet, and about smoking. Jt also asks at what age the women began in athletics, in what branch, they specialise, and how their nerves and general health are affected before and after events.”

The questions are so framed that the answers will tell doctors whether athletics are spoiling girls’ chances of happy, healthy motherhood.

For several years women athletes have been under medical supervision. No weaklings are allowed to compete in strenuous events, but this is the first exhaustive inquiry into effects on future health. “We arc confident,” said another member of the W.A.A.A. “that when tho answers are read by doctors who arc still doubtful about the effects of athletics on women they will he satisfied that no harm is being done to the future race.”

This point is supported by the numbers of marriages among women athletes in recent years. Many have, had families. The children have all been healthy, and frequently, when the children have gjvown out of the baby stage, the mothers have returned to athletics.

. The National Fitness Council, now nearly two years old, has already spent £1,671,838 on building a fitter Britain, The money has gone in grants for swimming baths, community centres, clubs and gymnasia, village balls, and playing fields. Applications for grants ipumber 75 a month.