WOMEN AS ATHLETES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29170, 2 April 1960, Page 17

WOMEN AS ATHLETES

Disagreement With Cerutty (K.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, April 1. Mr Percy Cerutty, coach of the world mjle record holder. Herb Eliott, and who also coached the former world record holder. John Landy, has few friends at present among Australia's women athletes. A report from Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday quoted Mr . Cerutty as saying that sport for women should be kept as it was in the Victorian age when no-one took them seriously. Speaking of modern training and conditioning methods, he said that women could not hope to keep it up without “surrendering their sex. There is no place for women (as women) in the hard grind of competitions like the Olympic and Empire Games,” he said. The secretary of the Australian and New South Wales Women's Athletic Associations, Mrs Doris Magee, said today: “Our present group of Olympic girls would make the cover on any magazine,, and would be excellent ambassadresses anywhere in the world.” Miss Shirley Strickland, the Olympic hurdle champion, who is married and the mother of two children and expecting .a third, said: “Mr Cerutty apparently finds he ean't get enough publicity from his exploits in the men's athletic field. “I resent his remarks, especially when we have a women’s Olympic team consisting mainly of married women. I would like to see him pulled to heel." Miss Marlene Mathews, former sprint champion and still co-holder of the world's 100 yard record, who has been married for two years, said: “X don't know what Cerutty has against us. Just see how many women athletes are married, and they are certainly feminine. He must be a woman hater.” Men Disagree, Too Even men disagree with Mr Cerutty. Roy Sandstrom, a former British Olympic Games sprinter and now lecturer in physical education at Melbourne University, said: ”I‘ve seen nothing here or overseas to convince me that women can lose their charm by competition and hard training. Athletics can actually add to a woman’s grace.” The Melbourne “Herald” sports writer, Ken Know, said: “Grace, beauty, power—you get them all in women's athletics. You just couldn't find anyone more graceful than Betty Cuthbert. "Even when she is storming towards the finishing line with her golden hair streaming behind her •he is completely feminine.”