WOMEN IN ATHLETICS

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 2, 4 January 1937, Page 10

WOMEN IN ATHLETICS

HER RISE TO STATUS OF MEN WHAT THE OLYMPIC GAMES REVEALED GERMAN FAIR SEX AT TOP OF TREE

The * Olympic Games showed us iow women are approaching to men's standards in the matter of track and lield athletics, writes J. Maitland Stead in the Christian Science Monitor. Do you quite realise the significance of Helen Stephens’ 11.45. in the womens Olympic 100 meters? The average male- sprinter or ordinary athletic club standard could not travel as fast as that. And the winner of the mens Olympic sprint championship, at Athens in 1896, traveled considerably slowed. In fact( on the evidence of the two times), Helen could have given T. E. Burke, U.S.A., five yards start and a beating. Already, most definitely we have arrived at a stage where only really good men sprinters can hope to beat the best women. The difference between the world’s 100-metie record for men and that for women grows less and- less. Who is to say when that process of diminution will end? To mere males it is a reassuring reflection that at present the difference in 1.15., meaning that Jesse Owens, the great American Negro sprinter, could give Helen Stephens about 10 yards and just win if he ran in his very best form. Helen Stephens an Exception. Helen Stephens—yet another Helen to win some of the highest honors in sport for the United States —is, of course, an exception among women runners. Her style of action is the .closest to the masculine that you .could imagine and she Is built on ■lines splendidly suitable for sprinting. Any race in which she takes part .is a foregone conclusion. • Only two other women could make returns below 12s. In the Olympics at Berlin Stanislawa Walasiewic.zowna, of Poland, who did 11.7 s in the final and Kathe Krauss of Germany, Who credited herself twice with 11.95. | —in a semifinal heat, when she w r as second to Helen Stephens, and in the •final, when she was third. Stanislawa Walasiewiczowna, more briefly and better known in America by the less exhausting name. Stella Walsh, has been since 1932 the Queen of Speed in women’s athletics. This year she has been running faster than ever. But her reign is over. Britain was Once Supreme. Only a few years ago, Britain was a nation supreme in the realm of women’s athletics. Now, however, the international situation is greatly changed and, according to the testimony of the games here, at least five nations can cleam to be considered superior. They are Germany, th2 United States, Poland, Italy and Hungary. The German girls w ere right " at the top of the tree. They gained at least one medal in every event but one—an astonishing record—and the solitary exception occurred only because they dropped their baton at the last change-over in the 4xloo- - relay. There was at least one very disconsolate fraulein after this tragic occurrence. But Herr Hitler sent a consolatory little message and the tears were wiped away. But for this episode with the baton the Germans would have won quite comfortably from America and Britain would have been third. In their heat the German girls put up a new world’s and Olympic record —46.45. Herr Hitler, I may say, was a most enthusiastic and regular spectator at the stadium and there is no doubt whatever that his presence served as a great incentive to the German athletes. They excelled themselves. And, having done that, they turned proudly to raise an arm in Nazi salute towards the Tribune of Honor where the Fuhrer sat. Comstock Does Well. American coaches have for many years exercised a considerab'e in-

fluence upon European sport, directly and indirectly, and this year the fact was illustrated emphatically by the success of the Italian track and field team, women, as well as men, trained by Boyd Comstock. On a brief period of time he has (among other things) made two very fine hurdlers out of Trebisonda Valla and Claudia Testoni. They finished first and fourth in the final of the Olympic 80 metres, which provided a most exciting race. The only women’s event which did not produce a new Olympic record was the running high jump. Three girls managed to clear sft. 3in.; but their style tended to decrease as the bar increased in height. The remaining two items in the women’s section of the Olympic track and field program—a section which, by the way, some ‘'reformers” would like to see eliminated—provided Germany with two smashing victories, literally so in the sense that they shattered Olympic records. Not for nothing are Tilly Fleischer and Gisela Mauermayer the heroines of modern German youth. Give the former a javelin and the latter a discus, and things begin to happen which are an inspiration to the athletically inclined. That is to say to the whole youth of present-day Germany. There was no louder roar of applause during the whole of the eight days’ competitions in the stadium here than when Gisela set the discus spinning and shimmering through the air further than any woman had ever done before in Olympic competition—ls6ft. 3 3-Bin. Steadily Improving. Jadwiga Wajsowna, as befits a young lady from Poland, showed polish second to none. For style and beauty in throwing a discus she is in a class by herself. But, unfortunately for her, Fauleln Mauermayer is similarly situated, so far as the throwing part of the proposition is concerned. The German star, a magnificent specimen of athletic womanhood, improves alfmost every time she throws. As may be gathered from the fact that this year she has beaten the world’s record on no fewer than six occasions. In the throwing events we had one more illustration of Japan’s widening interests and advancing standards in sport. Sadako YaniaMoto gained a fifth place with the javelin and her compatriots, Ko Nakamura and Hide Minishima, were fourth and fifth with the discus. Ranking of Nations. As Olympic track and fields competitions are decided merely as separate events and no attempt is made officially to translate the mass results into a ranking by nations, it is easy to gain vague (and not necessarily accurate) impressions of the international situation, but it is not easy to answer precisely the question, “How did America make out?” Or Britain. Or Poland. Or any other nation? So I have prepared a little standing which shows the answer at a glance. For the purpose, 10 points have been awarded for a first place, five for a second, four for a third and so on down to one for a sixth. And this is what we see:

Nation. 1 2 Places 3 4 5 6 Pts. Tl. 1. Germany 2 2 3 li - 3 49 £ 2. U.S.A 2 - - - 1 i 221 3. Poland - 2 1 . . _ 14 4. Italy 1 - - 1 _ _ 13 5. Hungary 1 - - - . - 10 6. Great Brit. - 2 - _ _ _ 10 7. Canada - - 2 _ _ _ 8 8. Japan - - - 1 2 - 7 9. Austria - - _ 1 _ _ 3 30. Holland ...... - - . _ 1 £ 23 11. France - - . Jr - _ ii 12. Sweden - - _ _ _ 1 1 13. Australia - - - - - £ 3