When bathing in the open, care has to be taken to avoid weeds or undercurrents. In the event of accidentally getting into a bed of weeds, the swimmer should cease kicking and work with the arms, and the current will then take him through. If he tries to swim, the weeds will entangle his legs and put him in an awkward plight. If he is carried away by a current in a river, he should select a spot on either bank and swim diagonally towards it, never minding where he has left his clothes. When in the sea, the conditions are not always the same, though the general rule of swimming diagonally for shore also applies. For sea bathing, how ever, it is far better, no matter how good a swimmer one may be, to have a boat in attendance. Before bathing in a strange place, the swimmer should make himself acquainted with the currents and the direction of the tide. When the tide is going out the course should be made close in along the coast. In a rough sea the swimmer should not attempt to breast the waves, but as each wave rises he should swim through, thereby saving himself from buffeting, which, if long continued, would cause insensibility or else great waste of physical power. When using a boat for bathing the best way is to dive from the stern, to which some steps or a rope ladder should be fixed, in order to aid the swimmer when getting in again. Failing these being at hand, the best way is to lay hold of the stern with both hands and then, making a hard rising kick, raise the body till it rests on the edge at the hips. Then smartly slip the hands a little forward, turn to a sitting position and enter the boat.
Speed swimming records are so frequently altered that students had best obtain the Amateur Swimming Association's annual handbook, in which are detailed the accepted records up to date. The improvement in speed has been most remarkable. In 1877 the mile amateur record was 29min. 251sec., and that stood until 1892. The record in 1909 was 24min. iisec. made by T. S. Battesby. In Jan. 1929 Arne Borg set up a world's record of 21nin. 6isec. The hundred yards record has been similarly re duced. In 1878 it was imin. 164sec.; in 1888 it had been low ered by J. Nuttall to imin. 6isec.; and in 1925 J. Weismuller of America, created a world's record of 52sec., which he lowered to 51sec. in 1927. The records over intermediate distances have also been considerably lowered, and many long-distance swim ming records have from time to time been created.
In 1910 F. E. Beaurepaire of Australia scored a series of re markable victories in English championships, winning every event from moyds. to one mile inclusive. In 1912 an Hawaiian, Duke Kahanamoku, H. Hebner of Chicago and George Hodgson of Canada, set up world's records at the Stockholm Olympiad. Apart from the prowess of the foregoing, the Stockholm fixture was noteworthy for the advent of women into Olympic swimming contests. Miss Fannie Durack of Australia won the sprint in
record time, while a quartette of British ladies secured the team event. A year later, J. G. Hatfield of England came to the front, and proved supreme in all distance events.
Olympic Games.—The governing swimming associations in Great Britain ceased operations during the war, but in certain areas commendable efforts were made to keep the flag flying by intensive work. Britain's only Olympic success at the Paris Games was scored by Miss Lucy Morton, who first came into prominence in 1915. The coaching propaganda was responsible for the rise to fame of the Misses E. Mayne, C. M. Jeans, H. M. James, I. Gilbert, G. Carson, M. Hamblin, M. A. Barker, E. King, M. J. Cooper, M. Specer, D. B. Hart, M. Laverty, also Messrs. A. Rawlinson, R. Flint and W. Stoney, all of whom have either won national titles or established records.
The Olympic Games at Antwerp in 192o supplied convincing proof of American supremacy, for the Stars and Stripes were carried to success in the free, back stroke and team events in record time, but the breast swimming fell to Scandinavian con testants. New records were established with clockwork regularity. The Hawaiian-Americans, Kahanamoku in the ioo metres (Imin.
isec.) Kealoah, in the back stroke zoo metres (imin. z5ksec.) being the outstanding performers among the men, whilst Miss Bleibtrey set up new world's figures for ioo metres (I min. i3isec.) and 30o metres (4min. 34sec.), all of which have since been beaten. The Antwerp Olympiad was noteworthy for the advent of mere children into the Olympic Games. Nils Skoglund, a 14 year-old Swedish boy, took honours in the men's high diving event, and Miss Aileen Riggin, a 13-year-old American, earned world fame by annexing the fancy diving contest against all corners, with her youthful country-woman Miss Helen Wainwright tak ing second place. Weismuller, a well set-up youth of Austrian descent, created world's figures for every distance from 5oyd. up to and including 22oyd.; he also proved equally skilful when swimming on the back. Weismuller won the zoo and 400 metres events at the Olympic Games at Paris in 1924, his respective times. being 59sec., and 5min. 4A-sec. In the 400 metres Weismul ler was forced to his utmost to defeat Arne Borg and Charlton, as only 2isec. separated the first three. Charlton, however, won the 1,5oo metres in 2omin. 6isec. breaking the Olympic and world's record of 22min. created by the Canadian, George Hodg son, at Stockholm in 1912. Although the Americans almost swept the board at Paris, it was noticeable that other countries including Sweden, Australia, England and Japan were real threats.