The Evening herald., June 13, 1930, Page 13, Image 13

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Just the Girl for a Greek God
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IN THE days of the old Greeks and the great Romans, men liked
their itlt oil and athletic, like Rena MacDonald. For centuries
powerful pucllae were the rage. Men admired women who could
work and, physically, they were a great race.
Then, along with the decadence of the Middle Ages, women
began lo get smaller and weaker. Thejr actually dwarfed. They
topped exercising. And began
fainting. 1 hey pinched their waist
and their feet. And toon they were
roly-poly. Short, plump creature.
Short-winded, and without an ounce
of strength.
They were no longer "towers of
trrength." but "clinging vine."
They bore children with greater
difficulty. And the tpan of their life
was shortened.
After a few generations, ther discov
ered they were fat and started to diet.
And, woman-like, they went to extremes.
Tens of thousands became emaciated.
Many of them died from diseases
brought about through malnutrition.
And the sanatorium were filled with
nervous wrecks.
T1E Creek ideal of womanly beauty
tipped the scales at 160, plus. She
wasn't fat, but her proportions were
generous, and the wet very muscular.
Now the American girl wrart herself
out. trying to keep under 120.
Look at Rena MacDonald, pictured
on this page. She weighs 155. She has
a beautiful face, and perfect body.
Praxiteles would have liked to sculp
her. Pygmalion would have gone crazy
about ber. Any of those old Creeks or
Romans would have battled for her, like
ther did for Helen of Troy.
t5ut Rena couldn't get a job with
Ziegfeld today, because timet lament
ably have changed. Physical perfec
tion it out-moded. And that is what
makes Miss MacDonald one girl in a
million. t
HER beauty is unique. Her athletic
prowess has made her one of the
world's foremost women athlete.
And she hat been blessed, besides, with
beauty of feature. And measurements
that rival Venus I
Miss MacDonald is world's champion
woman shot putter. And she is, besides,
a champion all-around athlete.
She holds, also, the national record
for throwing the discus. And she ha
annexed many national track and swim
ming crown.
At meets all over the country, the comperes in
dashes, hurdle, discus, shot, javelin, and standing
broad and high jumps. Her favorite swimming
distance is the half mile, using either free style or
breaststroke. She plays volleyball, basketball,
field hockey, ice hockey, football, and baseball.
She is an excellent horsewoman, and plays a
good game of tennis.
Probably there it not a more unusual athlete
than Miss MacDonald. Surely no other ath
lete ever became proficient enough in any sport
in the space of a few weeks to make an
Olympic team.
EVER since the was a little girl Rena
had been tossing shot around. A shot,
in case you doo't know, is a ball of iron
that weighs eight pounds. Rena heaved it 42
feet, four and a half inches, to break the world's
record. That happened in Chicago, last August.
Since then Rena has devoted a good deal of spare
time to tossing the ball around, and the other day
she very nearly broke her own record.
For several years she has felt sure that she
could put the shot further than any other woman,
and she was counting on her prodigious
strength to take her over to the last Olympics.
It was not until a few week before the
American team were chosen, that Rena
learned that no shot would be put at Am
sterdam. European women, it teems, go in
for discus throwing.
Everybody has seen picture or plaster
copies of the old Creek discus thrower. The
form, as you can plainly tee, is quite differ
ent from that of the shot putter. In fact,
putting the shot is largely a matter of strength.
While throwing the discus is almost entirely
a matter of skill.
"Oh. well." said Rena. "ITI have to get
me a discus."
"It's tough luck." the trainer told ber. "But there's no
use trying. Mae. You can't get in shape before the tryouts.
The thing's too tricky."
"Can't I?" said Rena. "Ye watch me."
IS OH
"Tm not built for a run- r . - -.. , ' , ' 71--' .
net." admits Rena. . . . f i - T it I
But they stanted runners, $ " J i .r.V" ... .,V'l I
ana me made herself mto I s w ' f -""""sasw
one . - . because the V,v ,-L..'1 "v' T. If iO "n,
anted lo compete. " 1 1 I , . II ' T i
S - VV heart." admits Rena. "TW- . j
.i'fS'wJ - - I. ' ... But all men '
WvVaj ' ' . . ore not ooed rj lie YJf
V -" i ' ' 1 vLl I even today.
Pa- Jit
In Olympic ris. . .
feet co-ordination it
necessary at strength ,
in the shot put.
TA ND she took ber discus, and went out into a vacant lot,
J and started practicing. Every spare moment she spent
hurling the thing. But the trouble was Mis Mac
Donald hasn't many spare moment. She work in an in
surance office, and they keep her pretty busy.
So she bought a little statuette of the familiar discus
thrower. And she placed it on ber desk for inspiration.
Evenr time she looked up from her work her eye fell on
the Creek youth, to that, almost unconsciously, she learned
the proper form.
within a few weeks, Rena had qualified as a discus
thrower. And, when the American teams were chosen, there
was no doubt as to ber eligibility. There wasn't a better
woman discus thrower in the country.
"Great work I" the coaches said. "Making an Olympic
team overnight, as you might say."
"Shucks I" taid Rena. "That's nothing. Anybody can do
anything they want if they want to bad enough."
ITUST to prove it, this versatile young woman plant to go
I toCzecho-Slovakia this summer, as a runner.
"Now, of course, I'm not built for a runner," ad
mitt Rena. "But they're not taking hurdlers, nor jumpers,
nor discus throwers, nor shot putters, nor swimmers. Just
runners. And they're only taking 20, at that. The 20 best
girl runners in America. So the only chance I have of teeing
Czeeho-Slovakia is making the track team.
"I'd never run much, until I heard about this meet Soon
as I learned of it, I started practicing trotting around the
country, and loping round the track. And now I've made
the Boston Swimming Association relay team. The coach
was pretty much surprised when I went out And the girls
were sure surprised, when I made the team. But there you
are perseverance turned the trick. It't like I always say.
want a thing bad enough,
and go right after it and
you'll sure enough get it
"Why. I was just a
little kid when I read
about the Olympics. It
was when I wat in gram
mar school. And the
teacher told us about how
the first games were sa
cred affairs, put on as a
spectacle for the gods. The Olympic games started about
800 years before Christ And they were abolished by the
Christian Emperor Theodosius, in 393 A. D., as a gesture
against paganism. v
"In 1920, when the American team went over, for the
first time after the war, I was 1 1 year old, and I was all
thrilled about the glory of the ancient Olympic, and the
Creat Adventure of the present ones. And I made up my
mind I was going to be an athlete, and get over there
myself.
44TT'S kind of a funny thing, but I come from a rather
J small family. I've four brothers, and, though they're
pretty fair athletes, they're all little fellows. They
played baseball, and hockey, and game like that. But they
weren't any of them big league stuff. My oldest sister it
married now, but she was a pretty good diver when she was
younger.
"Then there' Agnes Agnes is 1 7 now, and she might '
be a gra.id swimmer. Only her heart's not in it She'd rather
be a professional dancer.
"The only real athlete in the family, besides me, is my
little sister, Anne. Anne's 1 3, and crazy about sports. I've
great hope of making an all-around world champion of ber.
She does everything I tell her to, and trains like a hero. , . .
But what I started to say was, we were just an ordinary,
rather under-sized family. Anne was a baby in those days,
and I was only 1 1 myself. My oldest sister was a feminine
model, and mother was a little bit of a woman.
"They didn't want me to be a tomboy. Florence she't
my married lister she thought twimming wai all right but
he didn't approve of boyi' sports.
"The way I doped things though, swimming wasn't
enough. I wanted to be good in everything. In other words,
I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket, and be noth
ing but a champion swimmer and diver, like Florence. So
I went out for everything.
"And pretty soon I started to develop. As I said. I was
a little kid just a runt I started getting tall, and putting
on weight Not fat Just muscle. I'm hard as steel.
(Copyright, HJ0, By EvarrWask Macaslaa Prints In V. B. A.)
TVTOW I'm five feet six
l and a half inches tall.
And I weigh 155
pounds. Thil varies, you un
derstand, according to bow
finely I'm trained, but my
normal weight is about 13?
pounds. That maket me the heaviest person in the family.
Heavier than father, or any of the boys. They're all small
but me. Anne it a little thing now. but ihe't coming right
along. I wouldn't be surprised, if she was bigger than I am
by the time she gets her growth."
An artist interested in Mia MacDonald I extraordinary
physique, took ber measurement! recently to compare them
with those of the celebrated, armless Venus Venus de Milo,
whose figure has become a tort of standard of comparison
for the feminine form. ,
"They were amazingly similar, admits Rena. Hut you
know that doesn't mean a thing. Venus might have been
a wow in her day. But she'i too big for men's tastes today.
l-l ... it,, nrnnnrlinn of the ffoddest. in one column.
And here are Rena's, in the other. You can tee for yourself
how nearly Mist MacDonald approaches ancient perfection:
Vt.MS ' ,
14 Inches Neck...
34H Inches Hrist
28M lnche ....Walftt
38 Incbea .Illpa...
19V4 lnche Thigh
13 H Inched Calf
SM Incbea Ankle
((TTlHE reason I'm to big," explains
JL Rena, "is that I've always gone in
for field sports. Sometime! I lay
off for a while, and concentrate on twim
ming. If I swim twice a week for a month,
I can lose 10 pounds. That's a good tip
for anyone who wants to lose weight. Run
ning takei it off, too, of course. But my
chief interest is field sports, and that's what
has developed me.
"Personally, I feel that girlt would be a
lot better off if they chose to limit their
weight by taking part, moderately, in
healthful sports like twimming and run
ning, than in trick diet and no exercise
at all.
"There's nothing very spectacular
putting, from the standpoint of the
But it is a most fascinating exercise
athlete. It isn t simply a matter of picking up
Rena MacDonald, world champion
woman shot putter and the best
American woman discus thrower,
isn't the type you'll find In a
Follies chorus, but she rivals
Venus for classic beauty which
all the ancient poets raved about
an iron ball, and throwing it. If you want to grt champion
ship dntanre, every ounce of muscle comrs into play. And
tli.it i.n't all, either. You have lo attain an absolutely peilrct
bal.tnre.
"To reach the co-ordination of mind and muicle thai
makes fur long throws, you have to practice cnmlanlly. You
mut try this, and tiy that. Balance a little further hack, or
a little (ut llier fmwaid. l-rt go of the shot a (taction ol a
second sooner. Or a split second later. It's a matter of pel
fret timing, as well as of strength.
"It iut't. grneially seaking. a good eierciie for gt'tiV
lakes more strength than moil girls have, and mole weight
than they want.
"Besides, shot putting takes an entirely different soil of
temperament than the spotts that are latter and mote spec
tacular. One mut have the dogged determination lo practice
and practice uiually all !v onetelf. 1 lie girl runner or
swimmer can always have plenty of company. Hut the girl
shot putter is a sort ol lone wolf.
TMVE years I've leen in amateur athletics
1 now. l.ver since I was 16, I ve been com
peting in meets. I want to make the ! '-
Olympics. And then I'll be ready to taenfwe
.ny amateur standing, and turn Pro. I'd like to
coach in a girl's college. And I think if I hate
two Olympics back of me. 1 may be able lo gel
the sort of job I want.
"Athletics aie my sports now. Hut I have lo
earn a living at an office job. I want to mala
siwrt my livelihood. Hut I can't
turn pro and make a decent liv
ing until everyone knowt what a
good amateur I am. Iliat's why
I'm so anxious lo make the track
team that is going alwoad this
summer.
"1 run one evening a week
now. and swim two evenings.
That schedule, by the way. it a
great way to reduce. I'.very
night I jog along fur almost two
miles, and wlien I hit the scale,
liter my shower. I've lost three
pounds. It's a good way lor a
girl to drop superfluous weight.
Much mote semihle than diet
ing, and not half so tough. Of
course I don't mean thai you
could lose three pounds nn
night. Ilul you'd loe every
loose ounce. I he next day you
might put a brt of II on again.
Hot, between running and shim
ming, a girl can whip her figui
into pretty good shaie.
I i 'TjF.RSON ALLY, I don't
J want lo get thin ever. 1
like to put the shot too
well to take any chances on
losing my strength. My notion ol
keeping in condition is slaying
big and strong. I keep fit with
out any difficulty, becauie I doo't
care about the tilings that ruin a
lot of gills. I used to like lo
dance, and run around to the
movie, but I don't care about
either of them now."
Miss MacDonald doesn't car
alwut boys either.
"I guess I'm too boyish myself." she says. "J never hso
a sweetheart And 1 reckon 1 never will."
Hut then, of course, Rena has never had much time fet
beaux and dates. She is only 21 now. And a very stun
ning young person, with auburn hair, and handsome fraturvs.
She has patrician eyebrows, exquisitely arched, and fine, tear
less eyes.
The chances are that a
physical super-man will
come along tome day, and
he will look at good to her
at the ttatue of the Creek
discus thrower. Many an
old Roman would have
crossed the Rubicon for a
girl like Rena. And
there's many a young
American with the Ho
man'l sensible apprecia
tion of true womanly
beauty the sort of beauty
that make a race worth
while.
Sy '
Handsome
leatures sur
mount her
body.
HGNA
,.13V Inchea
..StVt Inches
,.29 Inches
,.3g Inchea
. . 21 V4 Inchea
..15 Inches
. , g lnchot
r in shot t
spectator. I
'or " Li
hl':VTwL At her daily i 'V '
W I r la,k ' ' Rtna l '
I' Jr?rfaVTfijL poundt a mean JtJ r " ' i
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