Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/201

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THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING.
189

only fifty-four to the minute—remarkably slow and strong, and not easily quickened by exercise. The long thighs and "bicycle stoop" are well shown in Fig. 4. Notice particularly the deep chest.

Adolph Norsing has skated since childhood on the rivers and fiords of Norway. For the last five years he has met the champions in this sport both at home and throughout Europe, and has visited America twice. He is a worthy representative of the land of the Vikings, and he now holds the Canadian record for half mile (1·24). His training methods are peculiar: two hours daily, finishing with about three miles at top speed, is his quota of work till the day of the race; his diet is principally oatmeal, eggs, and meat. He allows himself one glass of ale daily at dinner, but otherwise does not use alcohol and has never used tobacco. He is

Fig. 5.—Norsing.

a typical skater; his occupation, that of a carriage painter, is sedentary, and we find in him typical development.

Although not above the forty-five-per-cent class in height, and with his sitting height surpassed by over seventy per cent of