THE DEEP END

diving is the highest art of the athlete the spectacle of sport Ellen Quillin kovitch runner-up in the springboard diving championship limbers up for the national meeting pasadena's mr. Del Arroyo fool in national and Olympic competition contestants must do five dives which are compulsory and they're permitted five optional dives the elective dives vary in difficulty and are scored accordingly so each contestant selects the most difficult dive she can do well the half twist beats up to the more complicated dies Ellen who is only 17 does the hardest dive in the book a two-and-a-half summer song he's the only American girl to attempt it in big-time springboard competition looking more complicated but actually slightly less difficult is the full twisting one and a half now a feet first time the single layout somersault the back died compulsory in all competition it looks easy but is a top hazard hard to master only the top flight divers among girls do the dangerous back one-and-a-half somersault to finish off Helen glides through one of the most graceful of all dives a front jackknife another headliner Tunes up in the deep end iris coming national breast stroke titleholder pours through the water in the sunset towers pool at Beverly Hills radically altered for speed this stroke retains the fundamentals of the old fashioned breastroke using the breathing method of the crawl she lifts her head and inhales as she pulls on the Armstrong then she ducks under and glides as the feet are snapped together butterfly style a recent innovation in breaststroke competition is used only for shorts first for it's so exhausting that no swimmer has yet been able to keep up the pace for any distance from the 33 foot tower 18 year old ruth joe national platform diving champion soars in a graceful swan dive into the los angeles olympic pool it's a different technique without a springboard as she twirls into a one and a half perfect timing and coordination in the dangerous two and a half a half gainer the leading amateur platform diver runner-up in the last Olympics signs off with a daring back one and a half the Hopkins twins get away to a racing start at the Huntington pool in pasadena marion and virginia make up two-thirds of the national championship medley relay team the racing dive is shallow but not flat the twins reach for distance taking up the flutter kick as they lose the momentum of the die then the full stroke swimming with the knees and elbows loose and relaxed now the turn they slapped the wall breathe as they come about for the push off and they take up the stroke again using an eight feet flutter kick for to each arm marion national hundred meter freestyle champion jose how speed swimmers makeup fractions of seconds on turn and she shoves off from the wall practicing at the Santa Barbara built more for the defense of our national springboard title is 15 year-old Margery Gass trained at 13 are perfectly coordinated dives and calmness in competition led her to Olympic championship today she is the world's outstanding woman diver doing a back one and a half that no other girl and human do so expertly now a graceful back jackknife you here's a running a half twist a full twister watch how marjorie controls the flight with our head and shoulders you this one's dangerous a banquet spring with a forward summer song it's a cutaway one and a half the champion shows top form in the half gainer the Gator one-and-a-half somersault now to the half gainer he adds a half twist a few weeks before these pictures were made Marjorie took up platform diving after only 10 weeks of practice she took second place in the national championships this one and a half shows why Marjorie is the world's outstanding woman died it's diving like this that leads the crowds breathless and with these leading swimmers and divers in the ranks the American team is certain to smashed with sweeping conquest in the coming Olympic game