The Fastest Swimmer in the World

Cue (NZERS), Issue 8, 30 September 1944, Page 7

The Fastest Swimmer in the World

THE accuracy of the denial that any swimmer has yet broken 50sec for 100yds, as published recently in Cue’s quiz series, has been questioned by a member of 2 NZ Div. No such record has been officially recognised to date, but the feat of a new American champion, Alan Ford, who is claimed to have set a mark of 49 7-10 sec, has been given some Press prominence.

The New York Times’ sports 'Writer. Arthur Daley, unhesitatingly names Ford as the fastest swimmer the < world ♦ has ever known. Ford hails from the Panama. Canal Zone and visited Equador on three competitive swimming jaunts. On ' one of these trips to Puayaquil he met

Adolph Kiefer and since Alan fancied himself a back-stroke performer at that, time he learned much from the greatest dorsal artist the sport has ever known. Still on his South American detour, Ford’s path - crossed that of John Miller, coach at Mercersburg and the best school boy aquatic developer of them all.

John taught him so much in his brief stay in Equador that Fora was bitten firmly by the- Miller bug. He could not rest until he could switch his educational base from the Canal Zone to Pennsylvania Prep School. . Once at Mercersburg, .Ford s course was set. Yale had to be next stop, Yale it was. By an odd quirk of fate, however, ler had too many back-stroke exponents on the premises when Ford was under his watchful eye. So John made him over into a free-style sprinter with such success. that he had already won a yNational Amateur Athletic Union championship, even before he became an Eli. Then Bob Kiphuth, perhaps the shrewdest and soundest coach of all, finished the job which Miller had begun so well.

Twice last year Ford cracked Johnny Weissmuller’s hitherto untouchable century record of 51sec with 50 7-10 Sec and 50 3-5 sec. This season he cut it to 50 l-10sec and recently hammered it ' down to the comparatively incredible figure of 49 7-10 sec. Born in the Canal Zone just 20 years ago last December, Ford learned the rudiments of swimming at the tender age of four years. In such matter-of-fact fashion as that did a brilliant career start arid his early membership in the famed Red-White-and-Blue troup made him more water-conscious than most. ’ Ford even gained one distinction which no other top-flight natator can match. He swam in the Atlantic and Pacific within the spa of half an hour, a plane whisking him across the Continent at its narrowest point, the isthmus. It was a publicity stunt but that can’t spoil its conversational value. - ‘ . Miller had taught him to kick properly and had built him up

physically,' while Kiphuth's chief tasks were smoothing out his. arm action and, instilling, in him a proper sense of pace.. That last item was achieved by an ingenious.; system of underwater lights which flash on and* off, not unlike the principle of the electric rabbit. ■ The boy now has everything, although he is .comparatively small for one so swift. As a rule six-footers of the • Weissmuller type are best. But ' Ford is only sft 9in tall and 1651 b in weight. «He has. , everything a great swimmer needs,» says Kiphuth. « He is strong and flexible, with a heavy, deep leg drive. His long arms pull immediately on the catch, carry straight through without any side-slip and go on rhythmically and ? with perfect, timing to the end of the stroke. To me Weissmuller was always a model of swimming perfection, but his arm stroke was choppier than is used today. I would say that Ford is even smoother.» • Ford is ,an apprentice seaman, a most engaging young man with a winsome ever-ready smile and a rippling, happy laugh. He is young enough to be entitled to at least a mild case of swell-headed-, hess from his phenomenal-exploits in the pool. But he has not even an , infinitesimal trace of it and is as modest and as unspoiled as he was in his Canal Zone days; « I was mighty lucky when I made that 49 7-10 sec record,» he said with a chuckle, «because T came into two turns with the wrong hand. I can always make a turn with my right hand but I am never too sure with my left. So in I go left handed and get away with- it. Can you imagine that ? » ’' '.• ' r > ' ’ ■ ■ ■ Alan hasn’t recovered from his astonishment yet, but like a small boy with a new toy he i£ still tickled to death with his new mark. , ' . , The war is bound to cut short his career as a swimmer. How much he doesn’t know. From the time he was a tiny tot he wanted to win the Olympic Championship, a goal which may be beyond his reach, since 1948 .is the first possible date ’ for any OlympicGames, and Ford will be a grizzled old codger of 24 by then. .