World-Shaker

In Los Angeles U.S. swim fans got their first look at a 20-year-old Japanese performer named Hironoshin Furuhashi. By week's end they had decided that he was the best swimmer in the world.

Furuhashi and his teammates, barred from last year's Olympics, had not only swum away with most of the honors at the A.A.U. championship meet, they had also broken world's records right & left. Speedster Furuhashi had set most of the new marks.

Bicycle Pedals. In one trial heat early in the meet, he swam the 1,500 meters (just under a mile) in 18 min. 19 sec., beating the previous world's record by more than a half-minute. That night, figuring that he would surely break the records for 800 and 1,000 meters on his way to an easy victory in the 1,500-meter final, dockers were ready to time him at those distances. But it was a teammate, Shiro Hashizume, who was ahead at 800 and 1,000 meters, and who set the new world marks. Then Furuhashi overhauled his teammate and won the race.

Later, in the 800-meter final, Furuhashi broke Hashizume's brand-new record by more than ten seconds, set a new mark for the 400-meter, and swam on the Japanese team that lowered the world-record time for the 800-meter relay. The Nipponese swept all the championship free-style swimming events except the 100-meter (won by Bob Gibe of the Detroit A.C.).

U.S. experts went into a close study of the new Japanese swimming style, especially that of Prodigy Furuhashi. Instead of the standard six-beat leg kick, carefully synchronized with the arm strokes, he uses a slower, but very powerful kick which at times is not in rhythm with his arm movements at all. His arms revolve stiffly like bicycle pedals; he rides low in the water and, especially to flabbergasted U.S. competitors, he looks like a weird, power-driven machine.

No Distractions. Aside from their kicks and strokes, the secret of Japanese swimming success appeared to lie in their ascetic, priestlike dedication to the sport. Year in & year out, there are no drinks, no smokes, "no girls." They go to bed at 9 p.m. Three times a day they take gymnastic exercises.

Furuhashi, who weighs 162 lbs. and stands 5 ft. 7 in., has developed an imposing chest and tremendously muscular legs and arms. Every day, when he is not actually racing, he swims 4,000 to 10,000 meters. Hearing all this, a disgruntled U.S. swimmer said: "You call that amateur swimming? It sounds to me like professionalism."

Old Bob Kiphuth, famed Yale and Olympic coach, was more realistic: "This will shake the swimming world."

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