Meanwhile, experiments had led to the belief that the four beat leg thrash was most effective when composed of one com paratively wide and three very narrow scissoring motions. This style, termed four-beat trudgeon-crawl, or four-beat single rhythm crawl, became the accepted racing medium. The com bination of movements was responsible for so notable an im provement in average performances that technical experts con ceived the possibility of obtaining still greater speed from a six beat drive set to a double rhythm—two major and four minor kicks—which would minimize resistance and afford more even distribution of propelling power. But coaches were unanimous in declaring that the swift thrash would prove entirely too labor ious for distances longer than about ioo yd., and the subject was dropped temporarily.
Late in 1917, however, two young champions of the Women's Swimming Association of New York, Miss Charlotte Boyle and Miss Claire Galligan, determined to give the six-beat crawl a trial and by the summer of 1918 they broke records with it over the longer regulation courses, 88o yd. and one mile. So convincing was this demonstration that it caused a sudden change of mind among coaches and competitors. The six-beat crawl immediately won favour in the United States, presently in other countries and within a few years it had become the recognized stroke the world over, not only for racing, but for all around purposes. The coach ing staff of the New York association later evolved a crawl system of elementary instruction which greatly simplified the task of teaching swimming to beginners. Then another of its champions, Miss Ethel McGary, successfully exploited in turn the eight and ten-beat varieties of crawl, achieving title and record honours.
The most impressive illustration of the progress made in the United States through the advent and development of the crawl is afforded by the old and new national records for the classic competitive fixtures, 1 oo yd. in 75 ft. pools and 1 m. over courses of 55 yd. and upward. Before the introduction of the crawl the
men's respective records were listed at 58* sec. and 28 min. sec., the women's unofficially quoted at i min. 22 sec. and 35 min. 381 seconds. By 1928 the men's standards had been slashed to 51 sec. and 21 mill. 351 sec., the women's to 1 min. A sec. and 24 min. 491 seconds. It must be ascribed chiefly to the crawl, too. that American swimmers of both sexes, from trailing far behind rivals from other countries, rose to undisputed international lead ership. At the Olympiad of 1912 in Stockholm, before the stroke had been perfected and generally adopted, the United States was fifth in the natatorial competition, outpointed by Germany, Swe den, England and Australia in this order. At Antwerp in 1920, on the other hand, American men and women, the latter taking part in their first Olympiad, decisively outscored all opposing teams. This they repeated in turn at Paris, Amsterdam and Los Angeles.
Daniels, America's first international swimmer, garnered his early laurels with the trudgeon, but he did not attain nearly his best speed until he became a devotee of the crawl. Miss Gertrude Ederle, who swam the English channel in 1926, the first woman to accomplish the feat, used the crawl and covered the course in 14 hr. 34 min., faster time than ever returned by any man up to then. Among the outstanding figures in the history of American swimming besides the men and women named, are Henry Sullivan, Charles Toth and Mrs. Mille Gade Corson, also channel con querors; Harry Hebner, Olympic champion and first to use the crawl back stroke; Duke Kahanamoku of Honolulu, Perry Mc Gillivray, Norman Ross, John Weissmuller, Walter Spence, Walter Laufer, George Kojac and the Misses Ethelda Bleibtrey, Sybil Bauer, Aileen Riggin, Helen Wainwright, Ethel Lackie, Agnes Geraghty, Albina Osipowich, Josephine McKim, Martha Norelius, and Helene Madison, all swimmers of international rank and pro lific record-breakers in their day. (L. DE B. H.)