WOMEN ATHLETES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23302, 22 March 1939, Page 6

WOMEN ATHLETES

COMPETITIVE RUNNING EFFECT ON APPEARANCE MANY FALLACIES EXPLODED Several fallneies with regard to the effect of athletics oh the health of the girls who take part in them were exploded yesterday by Mrs. D. Magee, who is managing the Auckland tour of Miss Deeima Norman, Australian and Empire Games champion athlete. Although sho has retired from competitive athletics, Mrs. Magee is secretary of the Australian Women's Amateur

Athletic Union and secretary of the women's athletic association of New South Wales, and her interest in track and field work for women is as keen as it is active. "There seems always to be an accusation that athletic work is liable to make a girl masculine," said Mrs. Magee. "My experience, however, has shown that girls who are good runners always walk gracefully and with an excellent carriage. As an instance of this," she said, "there is Cora Hannan, woman record holder for Australia for discus throwing and shot-putting, who is one of the most graceful girls I have ever seen." A Normal Life

The theory that athletic women, once they had retired from the field, almost invariably became fat was discounted by Mrs! Magee, who cited several instances of Australian ex-champions since their retirement, had retained their slender figures. In this respect, however, she pointed out that something was needed to fill the place of athletic competitive work. Most women used their common sense in this matter and did not give up all physical exercise merely because of their retirement from athletics.

Mrs. Magee also refuted the idea that competitive athletics meant a rigidly-controlled life, with the elimination of all pleasure. Reasonable care nad naturally to be exercised, she said, but it was not necessary for a girl to go to bed very early every night to maintain her fitness. With the exception of the day before any event, when she would naturally rest to conserve her energy, a girl athlete lived a perfectly normal life.

Dangers ol Early Training The extreme youth of some of the competitors in New Zealand was commented upon by Mrs. Magee, who said that in Australia girls under the age of 14 were not allowed to train and were not encouraged, except in exceptional cases, to compete in athletic events.

"We feel that girls between the ages of 10 and 14 are just growing and that if they start training at that time they are liable to overstrain and 'burn themselves out' from the athletic point of view at an early age," said Mrs. Magee. "The girls in Australia who do not train until they arc 14 frequently go on in competitive work until they are 30, hut this is seldom tho case among girls who start training before thev reach this age."

The holding in Australia early last year of,tho British Empire Games had given much impetus to the sport in the Commonwealth from the women's point of view, continued Mrs. Magee. In New South Wales tho women's athletic association was at. present engaged in a campaign for starting clubs in factories for girls from the ago of 14 years upward in an effort to make them sport conscious. The City Council was co-operating in providing grounds and equipment, and the women were providing coaches and arranging competitive events.