The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1901-12-24
DIFFICULT DIVING.
SOME OROTESoUE FEATS OF
THE SWEDISH YOUTHS.
A Combination somersauit Done by Two
Men from a Spring Daring and
Scientific Forms la u Graceful Art
Initiating Birds.

The Swedes delight in combination
diving" and two men will perform
many clever feats together. One of
the most grotesque of these, says a
writer in Parsons Magazine, is shown
when one man stands upright on the
springboard and tightly clasps another
mans body around the waist, holding
him head downward, and puts his own
head through the otner mans legs.
When the upright man springs from
the board he throws his legs into the
air, so that the two men, each clasping
turn a somersault, and when they
reach the water the man who started
upside down arrives feet foremost. The
handspring dive is an effective spe-
cialty of Swedish swimmers. The per-
former takes off from LIE diving board
with hands instead of feet, turning his
body in order to descend feet foremost
or somersaulting to arrive head down.
ward. Very graceful also is the back
spring dive, in which the spring is
made backward, the body turning
toward the springboard Double SOM
ersault dives are made from platforms
thirty or fifty feet high, the diver max
ing two turns in the air and entering
the water feet foremost Among the
Swedes the graceful art of diving in
its most daring and scientific forms
is cultivated to a degree that no other
oh
and girls are taught when young to
overcome their natural instinct of fear
when entering the water and to prac-
ttce all manner of difficult feats, and
the result is that even among the
primitive races, such as the Hawai-
ians, whose wonderful diving holds
the man who cannot swim in bonud-
less awe and admiration, there are few
who can attain such a standard of the
art as may be found throughout Swe-
den. To Swede diving means not
only plunging into the water head
foremost, but also springing backward,
turning somersaults and Swan" div
ing from twenty, thirty or forty feet.
Swan diving is peculiar to Sweden. 1t
is the poetry of motion, the supreme
glory of the art. With a standing
spring, or with a brief run, the body
is launched into the air. At the same
moment the head is flung far back, the
back is followed sharply, the legs are
Strengthened and brought together.
The arms are flung out in a line with
the shoulders, like the wings of bird
flying In this position the body
swoops through 80 air until with a
few feet of the water, when. the arms
are swung together until the hands
touch, so that the body strikes the
water like falling arrow, at the cor
rect angle, with hardly a splash. There
is no more fascinating dive to watch
than this swan dive of the Swedes.
One after the other, in follow-my-le
er style, the Swedes run to the edge
of the diving place and throw them
selves into the air, the impetus gained
from the running spring sending the
body twenty or thirty feet forward to
drop through the air for all the world
as though it were flying. In Sweden it
is not uncommon to see a party of
boys flying through the air together
performing the swallow dive. All day
long they enjoy themselves practicing
these fancy forms of diving, perform
ing tricks and somersaults that would
astonish the most expert gymnast. The
women become as fearless as the men
in the backward and forward somer-
sault dive from comparatively great
heights, and are even more graceful
in their movements.-New York Press.