THE GOVERNMENT OF SWIMMING The banding of clubs together for the protection of their corn• mon interests has had a very marked effect upon the progress of amateur swimming as a competitive sport during the last quarter of a century. In its early days the governing body was almost universally decried, but it has gradually overcome all opposition, and every important club in the kingdom now sends its representatives to the Swimming Parliament. The clubs composing it are better organised, one set of racing laws is adopted by them all, and whenever an amateur swimmer competes at a meeting recognised by the association, he is certain of obtaining fair play, or else swift retributive justice is meted out to the offenders. Almost every sport has its govern ing body, but none other is so representative in its organisation as the Amateur Swimming Association, whose present rules are based on the best ideas of the Amateur Athletic Asso ciation and the National Cyclists' Union. Between these two powerful associations and the A.S.A. a bond of union exists, and the National Skating Association has just been added to this brotherhood of sport, so that whenever an amateur transgresses the rules of any of the four a quadruple penalty falls upon him ; until his suspension be removed, not one of the bodies will allow him to compete at meetings held under its laws.
Prior to the year 1869 there was very little if, indeed, any distinction between amateur and professional swimmers. The baths were few in number, ill constructed, and badly ventilated, the race meetings of a rough and ready character which beggars description. There were very few clubs to control racing, and the swimmers were allowed any amount of latitude. At length an attempt was made to improve upon this state of affairs, and on January 7, 1869, a Swimming Congress was held at the German Gymnasium, King's Cross, London, under the presi dency of Mr. E. G. Ravenstein. It was then proposed by Mr. W. W. Ramsden, for many years a very earnest worker in the swimming world, and seconded by Mr. T. Morris, National Club, the first winner of the mile amateur championship (though he afterwards became a professional), that an association composed of the various clubs in London should at once be formed to promote and encourage the art of swimming. The proposal was
agreed to, and a committee ap pointed to formulate a code of rules. This committee reported on February II of the same year, and the amalgamation was then known as the Associated Metro politan Swimming Clubs. In the original rules the amateur definition was : 1. Persons who have competed for money prizes, for wagers, for public or admission money, or who have otherwise made the art of swimming a means of pecuniary profit, shall not be allowed to compete as amateurs.
2. The fact of having competed with a professional for honour or for money (if an intention is announced before starting to hand the amount of the prize, if successful, to the objects of the associa tion) shall not disqualify in competitions confined to amateurs.
Shortly after the formation of this body it was decided to institute the mile amateur swimming championship, the race to be swum in the Thames from Putney to Hammersmith. The clubs that (in addition to certain individual swimmers) guaranteed the expenses were the Alliance, North London, Serpentine, National, West London, and St. Pancras. This race has been carried out every year since, but the course was altered from running to still water in /873.
On June 24, 1869, the governing body took the title of the London Swimming Association, and shortly after altered this to that of the Metropolitan Swimming Association. As far as we can gather from the records of this early amalgamation, it appears to have been received with a chorus of approval, but accorded an almost invisibld quantity of active support. In its gradual development it was greatly hampered by lack of funds, for the clubs belonging to it apparently believed that the objects of the institution would be quite sufficient to attract public atten tion. Its influence, as its title indicates, was purely local, but it laid the foundation stone of the present A.S.A., and its pro genitors must regard with pleasure the position which its more vigorous descendant has gained. The great drawback to its early progress was undoubtedly the frequent and apparently inter minable discussions on the vexed question as to what actually constituted a professional swimmer..