ALL - ROUND INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP The winning of the individual all-round ath letic championship calls for a man who combines in an unusual way the qualities of strength and spring. If a record-breaking sprinter, for in stance, represents the acme of specialization, the all-round champion embodies the maximum of generalization. He does not need to be a per former of the first class in any one event, but he must combine in an extraordinary way the best physical qualifications of a number of ordi nary individuals. The ordinary man falls below in many detached ways what is estimated to be the average height and weight and strength. The all-round champion is likely nearly to equal them. It might be said of him that he is abnor mally normal.
All-round champions, in the easy way that becomes a big and husky man who has won out, often say that " any man by proper training can become an all-round athlete." Some of the individual performances at this annual contest might indeed seem to corroborate such a remark, but as a matter of hard fact, to perform creditably at this ambitious list of events, ranging all the way from the hundred-yard dash to throwing the fifty-six-pound weight, requires an athletic devel opment which the ordinary man with ordinary training cannot hope to reach at all. It is not reasonable to believe that a man weighing less than one hundred and fifty pounds could do anything with the weight events, particularly with the fifty-six-pound weight, nor could the very heavy man hope to do much in the pole vault or high hurdles. Whatever the type, there must not be a weak spot in the athlete's entire make-up, and it has been demonstrated that failure to score in any one of the ten events is almost sure to prove fatal to a man's chances of winning. The all-round candidate must contest in ten events. Except for the half-mile walk, an antique and rather anomalous event not retained in ordinary athletic programmes, the all-round events group themselves naturally into three classes, each testing respectively the athlete's speed, spring, and strength. These nine events are as follows : the one-hundred-yard dash, the one-hundred-twenty-yard hurdle, and the mile run ; the running high jump, running broad jump, and pole-vault ; the sixteen-pound shot, sixteen pound hammer, and fifty-six-pound weight.
Until 1893 the performances which the all round athlete had to reach in at least seven of the ten events in order not to be counted out were as follows : one-hundred-yard dash, seconds ; one-mile run, 5 minutes 4o seconds ; half-mile walk, 4 minutes 3o seconds ; one-hun dred-twenty-yard hurdles, 202 seconds ; high jump, 5 feet ; broad jump, 18 feet ; pole-vault, 8 feet 6 inches ; sixteen-pound shot, 32 feet ; sixteen-pound hammer, 95 feet ; fifty-six-pound weight, 24 feet. When a contestant failed in any three of these events and was forced to drop out, his other points were cancelled, so that every other contestant whom he had beaten in any event was moved up a place. If Jones beat Smith and Robinson in the hundred, for exam ple, and was later disqualified, Smith was named the victor in the hundred, and Robinson was moved up from third to second place. By this device it was impossible for a star performer to win the competition by specializing in the chosen events. First place counted five points, second
three points, and third one point. The obvious injustice of this method of counting in a contest, designed to illustrate all-round development rather than specialized development, was that a man might show a really remarkable general average of performances and yet not finish better than fourth or fifth in a majority, or even in all, of the events.
A percentage system of counting was therefore substituted for the system of counting by points. By this scheme the world's amateur record in each event is made the maximum performance, and any contestant who can equal that record is given one thousand points. The standard of minimum performances was then lowered so far that it would include all performances of which any candidate for all-round athletic honors could unblushingly be willing to be guilty. The three failures-disqualifying rule was done away with, and by a carefully devised system of scoring each contestant was to receive proportionate credit for his performances, whatever they might be, provided that they did not go below the minimum standard. This minimum standard is as follows: one-hundred-yard dash, 14 seconds ; one-mile run, 7 minutes 38 seconds ; half-mile walk, 6 minutes 23 seconds ; one-hundred-twenty yard hurdles, 22* seconds; running high jump, 3 feet 9 inches; running broad jump, 13 feet 1 inch ; pole-vault, 6 feet 6 inches ; sixteen-pound shot, 26 feet 2 inches ; sixteen-pound hammer, 6i feet ; fifty-six-pound weight, 15 feet. The present system of counting is a great improve ment on the old system of scoring by points, but it still, and perhaps inevitably, leaves something to be desired. The point at which a man ceases to be merely an ordinary duffer citizen with two legs and two arms, and begins to be what may be called an athlete, can hardly be measured by a regularly graded percentage score. Almost any young man who can run at all can learn to run one hundred yards in 12 seconds. Not one man in a thousand could learn, if he trained all his life time, to run the hundred in io flat. And yet the twelve-second man, according to the present per centage, gets five hundred thirty-eight points, or considerably more than half the nine hundred fifty-eight points that are given to the ten second man. In the high jump, again, there is a similar difficulty. With the minimum at 3 feet 9 inches a man who jumps 5 feet is reckoned almost " half as good " a jumper as the man who equals the record. Yet almost any man with a little training could learn to jump 5 feet ; not one man in ten thousand could learn to jump equal to the record. A performance of half as many seconds or feet does not necessarily make a man " half as good " a performer — such are our linguistic paradoxes — and to represent in cold figures so vague and meaningless a term as " half as good an athlete " is at best a purely arbitrary business. And whether or not the pres ent system of minimums and percentages are as justly arranged as is possible is a matter of individual opinion which we shall not attempt here to decide.