Norway's Pride in Her Sports-women The great reception given to the charming Norworian gin skater, Froken Sonja Henie, when she won the world's championship for women figure skaters at the London Ica Club last winter has caused the liveliest pleasure and pride in Oslo. The enthusiastic applause of the King and Queen and the unbounded cordiality of the British public towards their youthful champion have been talked of in all the newspapers, and have quite touched the hearts of the Noswegian people. One of the strongest bonds between Norwegians and the British has always been in this very matter of wholehearted dev Southe "mad English"—and even we out-selves may sometimes for a moment suspect that, on this one subject, Wwe are, perhaps, just a trifle crazy, Then is the moment to meet a Nor-for we shall immediately sured that no one who looks. 80 well and 80 sane could possibly be even "a trifle" erazy—and nevertheless. obsessed even as we are, Froken -Sonja Henie, the Norwegian girl champion ' (champi for the second. time), is only between 19 and 16 years of age, and is indeed a dainty little creature the ice, She has learnt to skate at the age when all mechanical things fare most easily learnt—and the age when, if possible, they ought to be learnt. For whether it be to dance or to skate, to handle a golf club, to hit a tennis ball, or to sit a. horse, five years of age is, T imagine, more or less the time to hoggin, It is so easy at that age to adapt oneself to all sorts of new tricks of quill very different later on. as we are that offers ideal facilities for sat. ing, Too Much Snow Cold and ice, of courst has in abundance, but she has also fan abundance of snow—the deadly enemy of outdoor skating. No sooner is there a gorgeous sheet of ice—a large part of the for haps, temptingly frozen over.
Jo! the snow begins. And of what use to the figure-skater a sheet of ico covered with hard, frozen snow? On this account, and because of the greater passion for ski-ing, the Norwegians rather neglected (even disdained?)—figure-skating until within quite recent years, when a large ice rink ("The Stadium"), which was designed primarily for distance-skating competitions, gan to encourage figure-skating. It is here that Miss Henie has dono h of her practising and has lighted the eyes of all beholders, Other Norwexian Trium But Miss Henie's is not the only Norwegian sports triumph of these. last days. Froken Sigrid Stronstad carried off the American championship for women skiers at a tournament in Polo Park, Illinois, She seems to have won with con-iderable ease both the distance run and the hill run. She has also some quite demonstrations of ski-jumping, an accomplishment which is beyond the scope of the great majority of even the best women skiers, And last but not least of the mths, a mew record was made for the Tolmenkollen jump by a young Norwegian, Alf Andersen, at the annual ski-jumpin:¢ competitions. Andersen jumped 48 meters, and, of course, got a furiously enthusiastic rerope tion from the crowd st 35.c00. spectators who sat, oblivious of cold toes and dead' fingers, and. shouted themselves hoarse. But noisy as was the reception given to Andersen a great jump, it was not 80 noiey—and this is charaeter'stie of the Norwegians—as the reception given to a much more modest effort: made by a young foreigner. Japanese. Here again the Nor-woman people and the British have the same traditions of chivalry, arud: it is pleasant to think that when Oslo was acclaiming the young Japanese, London was going wild over Sonja Henie—utnsten MAC.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.