“Broken Time”—Amateurs Should he Paid

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 642, 19 April 1929, Page 7

“Broken Time” —Amateurs Should he Paid

ANDREW CHARLTON THROWS A BOMBSHELL INTO AUSTRALIAN SPORT CIRCLES “Borg Knows I Wasn’t Scared, of Him” “PONE are the days when a man was mug enough to chuck up his future for amateur sport. A scheme will have to be launched whereby amateurs can be compensated for ‘broken time.’ ” This is one of the many startling remarks made by Andrew Charlton, the crack swimmer, in a statement which threw a bombshell into Australian sporting circles.

A N extraordinary condition of affairs in Australian swimming circles is revealed by a statement, published in a Sydney newspaper by Andrew Charlton, the finest swimmer ever turned out in the Commonwealth. Charlton refused to compete at a gala organised in Sydney in honour of Arne Borg, the Swedish wonderswimmer, who toured Australia recently, whereupon it was freely suggested that the local man did not care to risk a defeat. Tiles** suggestions, allied to a sense of personal injury, provoked Charlton to an extraordinarily bitter outburst, which, published in Sydney, has put the cat among the pigeons with a vengeance. Regarding the suggestions that he was afraid of Borg, Charlton asks “Why? In seven finals I have beaten the Swede five times.” Charlton also makes some pungent remarks about the Australian failures

at the Games. He says the men themselves should not be blamed—it was simply a case of wrong selections. Naturally, he has a word to say about compensation for “broken time.” Charlton’s statement is appended: “I cannot afford to continue in competitive swimming without some compensation for loss of time. “That’s the modern trend; the A.S.A. offered me training and travelling expenses to swim Borg, but the offer came very late in the day, and would have given me no chance of getting properly fit. “Everything I’ve ever had out of the association I’ve had to fight for, and when they saw their hopes of the cash vanishing they came hard after me to swim Arne again. Yes, I’ve been made a convenience of ever since I came into the game, and I’m sick of it. “When I returned from the Olympic Games I told all of them I

wouldn’t swim Crabbe or anybody else who came out, and I’ve never given any indication that I was likely to change my mind. “Putting it all in all, I reckon that I’ve never had a fair go from the game, and it’s too late now to make amends. Better Inducements “It has been suggested that I will turn professional in an effort to get some good gilt out of the game; but there’s not a chance of that. My own line of business holds out far better inducements than the fleeting benefits to be got out of professional sport. “Borg knows I was not scared of him. “Ask him and he’ll tell you my real reasons for not swimming this season are far different. I simply can’t afford to leave my work for the long periods necessary to get into proper trim to race the champions of the world. “The time has arrived when I must choose between business and pleasure; they don't mix, and I’m plumping for the former. “Gone are the days when a man was mug enough to chuck up his future for amateur sport. A scheme will have to be launched whereby amateurs can be compensated for ‘broken time.’ “And just a word or two about the wretched manner in which the Aussie athletes were treated at Amsterdam. All the bunk we heard before we sailed about Australian food and conditions makes us smile when we think of them. “When we left the swish hotel they chose for us in Kensington—a spot where one really neded a monocle, a cane, a drawl, and a pair of gloves to be as well dressed as the next man—they took us to Velsebak and fed us on veal till we looked like it. “The hotel was ideal as a place at which to rest, but we didn’t go to Holland to rest, we went there to train. “Imagine the shock the team got when they learned they had to travel 60 miles a day to reach the training grounds. “Don’t blame the athletes altogether for their failures at the Games. Some critics called them has-beens;

that was unfair. In several cases the wrong men were selected. “I understand that the selectors picked men they had never heard of, and in some cases they helped pick men who were in a totally different branch of sport from the one in which they—the selectors—were supposed to be expert. “Mr. Taylor was top-weight in the Unpopularity Stakes as far as the Australian team was concerned, and they showed with the utmost unanimity what they thought of him just before the big swim at Amsterdam. Rightly or wrongly the team thought the Olympic chief should have bustled round and tried to do everything humanly possible to alleviate their hardships. “Take the case of Bob Pearce, for example. He returned to Australia as champion amateur sculler of the world. Yet what do we find? For weeks after he got back to his native city he walked round looking for a job. Nothing was done to find him work by the Olympic people.

“After a while he got work as a carpenter on a concrete job out at Vaucluse. Their job petered out. He then got a similar billet in the city. That petered out recently. “Bob didn’t even get a skiff from the Olympic people when he sailed for the Games. Dewar’s provided it. “Australians appear to have only the slightest conception of what other countries do for their amateur athletes.

“Williams, who won two sprint titles at the Games, came from Canada. When he got back the residents of his district extended him a welcome fit for the Prince of Wales, handed him over a handsome cheque, a college education, and a house for him and his parents.

“Ken Myers, the Yankee sculler, cried when Pearce beat him in the final. He knew what was awaiting him in the way of recognition had he taken the title back to Philadelphia. “Australia’s prospects in the Olympic are black, in my opinion, and I would suggest something concrete be done right a way to put amateur sport and treatment of amateur athletes on a proper and equitable footing. That’s the remedy.

“Swimming will never go ahead until the sport is controlled by young men possessing advanced ideas. “Until we can devise plans to treat oi r athletes differently it’s waste of money to send them to the Games."