NO CHAPERON FOR WOMEN SWIMMERS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25933, 13 October 1949, Page 5

NO CHAPERON FOR WOMEN SWIMMERS

CRITICISM OF ENGLISH DECISION (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, October 11. After a heated discussion, the executive committee of the Southern Counties Swimming Association, meeting in London, carried a unanimous resolution deploring the action of the England Amateur Swimming Association in deciding to send the English women’s swimming representatives to the Empire Games -n New Zealand without a chaperon. Members of the executive commiti tee said that considerations of expense . were insufficient justification for send- | ing six girls, between the ages of 17 and 25 years, away from England for I four months without the assistance of a chaperon. They recalled that at the Los Angeles Games in 1932. one of the English swimming representatives Miss Mary Kenyon, had to be taken suddenly to hospital with appendicitis, and that in 1947 one of Britain’s leading women swimmers, Miss Nancy Riach. died from infantile paralysis during the European swimming championships at Monte Carlo. The opinion was expressed that these were the type of emergencies which required the presence of a chaperon. It was suggested that if the association felt itself unjustified in appointing a chaperon solely to look after women swimming competitors, one or more chaperons should be appointed to accompany all English women competitors going to New Zealand.