Swam 6000 Miles To 3 Gold Medals

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 13

Swam 6000 Miles To 3 Gold Medals

“The Press" Special Service

AUCKLAND, November 27.

More than 6000 miles of training were swum in the transformation of a nine-year-old hopeful into S. E. Clark, the United States swimmer who won three gold medals at Tokyo, and who is competing in the carnival in the Newmarket Olympic pool on Saturday night.

Twenty-one-year-old Clark arrived yesterday with three other American Olympic swimmers —J. Graef, aged 22, the backstroke gold medallist, T. Mann, aged 22, the only swimmer in the world to break 60s for 100 metres backstroke, and M. Wall, 18, a challenger in the longer distances to the mighty American, D. Schollander.

The Americans said they were all the products of the age-group training system adopted 15 years ago in the United States.

By this system, a fast time swum by any youngster anywhere in the country is posted on club notice boards everywhere else in the country for swimmers of the same agegroup to break or equal. Clark and Wall, freestylists, have been training for 12 and nine years respectively as swimmers. Both were swimming a mile a day when they were aged nine Graef has been swimming for 12 years, though for only four or five years as a serious contender for any honours. Mann has been swimming more than 10 years.

All four are students, two doing post-graduate work.

Clark, from California, is studying political science at Yale, and hopes to join the State Department, and possibly to attend law school. One May Last

Of the quartet, only Wall can hope to be a major contender by the time of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. “We’re all too old,” the others said. Clark said that even Schollander, who won four gold medals at Tokyo, would probably not be a champion swimmer in fours years’ time.

“Schollander is great because he combines endurance, speed, and mental attitude,” said Clark. “That guy has an intense desire to win. But in four years there will be someone with an even greater mental attitude to push him from the top.” All agreed that the new non-touch tumble turn would lower existing records in events at future games and that the turn would favour the taller swimmer.

Not In Training

All four will appear at the Olympic Pool on Saturday night. Mann and Wall will fly to Fiji on Sunday, but Clark and Graef will stay for a week and may appear at Christchurch and Dunedin. None of them has been in training since Tokyo. But even without training, the New Zealand records for 110 yards freestyle (R. Pound, panada, 56.85) and 110 yards

backstroke (S. Fukushima, Japan, 63.85) should be in serious danger. The four Americans, swimming at the Blue Baths, Rotorun. last night, swam a 4 x 33 1/3 yards medley relay in 1:6.8. The times were made up as follows:—Graef (back-’ stroke), 17.1; Mann breasstroke), 19.6: Clark (butter-' fly), 15.6 s and Wall (free-, Style), 14.55.