Evening star., 1925-10-25

why those famous Greek
athletes Of the Olympic
- games left no world records
behind them? Practically
every able-bodicd Greek participated
in some kind Of sport. Eut we have
found almost no authentic records of
their feats and those that We have
show that the Greeks were. if any
thing. inferior 10 the record breakers
of today.
4 clue To the answer was given in
the remarkable collection of pictures
Of Greek athletes shown by the Metro
politan Museum of Art recently. From
these we can see that the ancient
athlete worshiped what today we call
form and style" He thought 50
much Of these, in fact. that he con-
tinually sacrificed speed and distance
for the sake of conventional, artificial
ways Of doing the feat.
For instance. there is Il bronze stat
uette which shows n Greek sprinter
waiting, ready for the starting signal.
But the position of his feet would
seem absurd 70 any modern coach.
The feet are 50 close together that the
runner must have been quite cramped
in his effort to get off to a speedy
start This. however. was the cor
rect style: in fact. ii va 50 strict 4
rule that the starting place ON the
, track was marked 10y TWO parallel
grooves, just a few inches apart The
sprintcr had to stand in these marks.
This is just a sample ot the restriC-
tionS imposed upon the ancient ath-
/ letes, which are Illustrated clearly by
the pictures and the writings that
have come down TO rs.
The four main track and field events
for the Greeks were the foot races,
the broad jump. the discus and the
jaVelin throw. In eaCn of these there
was some peculiarity Of style which
had to be strictly compiled with, and
which must have hindered any Hell
lenic hero rashly aspiring To make
record breaking achievements at the
cost of formality.
This love of form was shown par
! ticularly in the broad jump. Under
! modern rules the jumper can land
with one foot behind the other. OF
with feet close together or somewhat
apart. just as he pleaSes. without
being disqualified. But the ancient
! Greek broad jumper had. 10 come to
| earth with both feet neatly paired
/ together. or the whole effort would
/ count for nothing. NO jump was al
I lowed TO be measured according tC
T.. y. Gardiner. unless the impress
of the feet was regular. says PhiloS
tratus meaning thereby that if the
jumper fell or stumbled or landed
with one foot in advance of the other
the jump was not counted"
:: = =
A MOTHER popularity about the
Greek method of broad jumping,
as compared with the modern man
ner. is the fact that it called for only
a short. SprinSy run of Il few steps
before the take off" board was reach.
ed, instead of the long sprint which
the modern athlete uses to get up
speed. The Greek broad jumper took
off in the same way the high jumper
does today. We do not know for sure
that this was another ironbound rule
of form, but it seems logical to believe
that if the Greek had been striving
after distance alone. Withoutt regard
to the niCeties of style. he would have
discovered and adopted the modern
method.
Many of the pictures show broad
jumpers using jumping weights, one in
each hand. They weighed anywhere
from two to six pounds, and. when
swung with correct form. actually
helped the jumper attain greater dis
tance. That is one aid toward record
| breaking which the modern athlete
: has discarded.
The most radical difference between
the Greek rule of form for form 5
sake and the modern free style" can
| be seen in the discus throw.
The famous statue known as
| Myron's Diskobolos illustrates the
handicapS the Greeks We're under
Here the athlete IS at the start of his
| preparations to make the throw. We
would naturally expect that the next
move would be to swing completely
around, as Is done today, allowing for
n more powerful heave. But instead
the Hellenic athlete was limited to
| taking one or two steps forward
before letting the discus go. No turn
ing was allowed: if the would-be cham
pion could not get results according
to the peculiar style ordained he was
not considered to be of first-class
! caliber.
This form was adhered to at first
! when the Olympic games were re.
vived in Athens. in 1896, but Amer
| leans who introduced the free style
as used today got more distance in
their throws.
Another example of the Greek disre.
| gard for mere time and distance rec.
ordS is furnished by their javelin.
| throwing events. One of the favorite
sports was hurling the javelin, not for
distance, but at a target. Any one who
| has seen javelin throwing as practiced
| in the high schools and universities
today can realize what a difference