JAPAN'S RISE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 14

JAPAN'S RISE

OLYMPIC SWIMMIN(T"

NATIONAL ADVANTAGES

NO RADICAL CHANCE

No phase of the 1932 Olympic Games gave rise to greater criticism than the Japanese swimming triumph, and with the 1930 fixture only six months away, and the probability, if recent performances mean anything, of Japan again carrying all before her, echoes of the reasons advanced for her superiority are once more being heard.

1 Following the amazing success in :1 1932, experts vied with one another in :" their explanations of Japan's remarkable development. Some affected to 5 see a revolutionisation in swimming r technique; others that the use of liquid 1 oxygen had influenced the Japanese ' victories; not one could agree just 1 wherein lay the radical change, though " change there was they were convinced * despite the refutations of the Japanese - themselves. i MORAL FACTOR. i ■ Probably the convictions of many of ' the critics were the result of the powI erful attraction that exists in human ■ nature towards the occult, for there . was no evidence that the Japanese : success was due to a revolutionary ■ stroke, or the use of oxygen. Rather ■ was it because of scientific training, i and hard work, though perhaps the ! greatest factor in the victory was the . moral one. Determination to win ■ was cultivated as intensely as it was , in Britain during the Great War. The • magnitude of the task was emphasised : and everything possible done to-keep iup both determination and enthusi- . asm. So far as their technique is con- ' ccrncd the Japanese have developed the leg-work first introduced by Duke Kahanamoku, a former Olympic champion. They have so concentrated that it bears a much larger proportion to the arm-work than it did in* the great Hawaiian's method. They have, too, certain natural advantages. Japan has an enormous length of coast, and thousands of pleasant beaches. A large part of the population lives within easy reach of the shore; the bathing season is a long one, and probably no nation has so many swimmers. Among physical advantages, is possibly the splay foot acquired by walking on fiat wooden clogs, and the nobby leg muscles created by much walking in a country that consists mainly of hills. There is also the growing stature of the younger generation of Japanese who, with the cultivation of sport, a more varied dietary, and other causes, are bigger than their parents. Nature has her own idea of physical aristocracy, and with the extension of the Olympic cult in Japan, this has resulted in the inevitable discovery of natural talent. The myth that the muscular attributes of the Japanese were not conducive to great speed and stamina in the water has been exploded for ever. COST NOT COUNTED. Japan has spared no expense to gain a place in the athletic sun- She has sifted the most fruitful Western methods of scientific acquatic training, and applied the.m to her own potential champions. With the Olympic goal constantly before her, the development of specialisation to a degree previously unknown has been not only a natural consequence, but is also easily explained in the light of Oriental perseverance. Japan has outstripped and out-spec-ialised her mentors. It has been this intense development, the outcome of the determination to win, rather than the cultivation of any particular technique, that has put her right in the very forefront of world swimming:. The use of oxygen, too, for the Japanese have never denied its value as a revitalising influence, which was first adopted on the advice of, Japanese physicians, marks a further milestone in the progress of swimming. Though its effect is not prolonged, it assists recovery from exhaustion, and from this point of view no one could possibly cavil at its administration. Japan has not ceased building during the past three years. The country has been systematically combed for Olympic possibilities, and any showing promise at all have been rigorously criticised by experts, and their faults eliminated. The Western swimming world, it would appear, is destined toibe still further disturbed by the triumphs of the Japanese at Berlin.