WORLD CHAMPION DIVER MAY TOUR NEW ZEALAND

Southland Times, Issue 23634, 8 October 1938, Page 14

WORLD CHAMPION DIVER MAY TOUR NEW ZEALAND

The brilliant diver, Pete Desjardins, who won the world championship for high board and springboard diving at the Olympic Games at Amsterdam in 1928, contemplates visiting New Zealand about the middle of February of next year. Desjardins’s performances were so high that they have never yet been equalled and set the standard for the whole world. Scoring an average of 9.2 points out of 10 for his dives at the Olympiad, he was awarded full marks for two of

them by all five judges. Since turning professional six or seven years ago he has, according to reports, improved still further. Known as “the little bronze statue from Florida,” he stands no higher than sft 3in. Desjardins, who has just completed his sixth successful tour of Great Britain, is at present on his second visit to India. For his first world tour he has been booked to travel in all places of the East. Critics have been loud in their praise of his exhibitions and those competent to speak have definitely stated that his influence on the standard in Britain has been great. He attracted crowds of 10,090 people each day for 10 days when he appeared at Hastings. A young man of fine physique, he was a French-Canadian by birth, but became a naturalized American. A good deal of Desjardins’s training was given by Mr E. Brandsten, who invented the Brandsten diving board, used and recognized as the Olympic diving board.