The plunge for distance is a diving event that enjoyed its greatest popularity in the 19th and early part of the 20th century, even being included as an official event in the 1904 Summer Olympics.Kehm, Greg. Olympic Swimming and Diving, p. 14 (2007) By the 1920s, it began to lose its popularity and slowly disappeared from U.S. and English swim competitions.
Description According to the 1920 Official Swimming Guide of the American Swimming Association, the plunge for distance "is a dive from a stationary take-off which is free from spring from a height of 18 inches above the water. Upon reaching the water the plunger glides face downward for a period of 60 seconds without imparting any propulsion to the body from the arms and legs." To determine the total distance traveled, the measurement was taken from the farthest part of the body from the start, "opposite a point at right angles to the base line."Official Swimming Guide 1919–20, p. 85-86 (1920) Generally, being fat was an advantage in the sport.Handley, Louis de B. Swimming and watermanship, p. 98 (1918) The 60-second limitation appears to have been instituted at the English Plunging Championship around 1893.Spalding's official athletic almanac for 1910, p. 173
In later years, the plunge was subject to criticism as "not an athletic event at all," but instead a competition favoring "mere mountains of fat who fall in the water more or less successfully and depend upon inertia to get their points for them."Barnes, Gerald. Swimming and Diving, p.44-47 (1922) John Kiernan, sports writer for the New York Times, once described the event as the "slowest thing in the way of athletic competition", and that "the stylish-stout chaps who go in for this strenuous event merely throw themselves heavily into the water and float along like icebergs in the ship lanes."Kieran, John (16 March 1930). Sports of the Times, The New York Times Similarly, an 1893 English report on the sport noted that spectators were not enamored of it, as the diver "moves after thirty or forty feet at a pace somewhat akin to a snail, and to the uninitiated the contests appear absolute wastes of time."Henry, William and Sinclair, Archibland. Swimming, p.110-19, 411 (1893)
History The exact origins of the sport are unclear, though it likely derives from the act of diving at the start of swimming races.Wilson, William. The swimming instructor, p. 60-64 (1883)(2 August 1845). Swimming – Section III – How To Go Into The Water – Plunging, The Sportsman's magazine The 1904 book Swimming by Ralph Thomas notes English reports of plunging records dating back to at least 1865. The 1877 edition to British Rural Sports by John Henry Walsh makes note of a "Mr. Young" plunging 56 feet in 1870, and also states that 25 years prior, a swimmer named Drake could cover 53 feet.Walsh, John Henry. British rural sports, p. 720-21 (13th ed. 1877)
The English Amateur Swimming Association (at the time called the Swimming Association of Great Britain) first started a "plunging championship" in 1883.Cox, Richard et al. Ref Encyclopedia of British sport, p. 111 (2000) By 1900 the "plunge for distance" event was being regularly mentioned in reports on U.S. swimming meets, and was mentioned in the New York Times and Brooklyn Eagle at least as far back as 1898.(23 October 1898). Club Chat About Sports, The New York Times(16 July 1898). Knickerbocker A.C. Sports, Brooklyn Eagle
The event is best remembered today for its one-and-only Olympic appearance in 1904. William Dickey of the USA won the gold medal with a distance of 62 feet 6 inches,MAtthews, George & Marshall, Sandra. St. Louis Olympics, 1904, p.85-86 (Arcadia 2003)(October 1904). Olympic Swimming Championships, New York Athletic Club Journal which remains the Olympic record.(8 August 2008). Live pigeon shooting, anyone? , Ottawa Citizen However, there were only five participants in the event, all from the United States and the New York Athletic Club.Matthews, George R. America's first Olympics: the St. Louis games of 1904, p. 163 (2005) Dickey's teammates Edgar Adams and Leo Goodwin took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Dickey's Olympic victory was far short of the world record at the time, which for a 60-second limit competition had been set at 79 feet 3 inches by W. Taylor of Bootle, England in September 1902.Thomas, Ralph. Swimming, p. 149-50 (1904)Spalding's athletic almanac, p. 43 (1903) (Without a time limit, Taylor had also traveled 82 feet in 73.6 seconds.)Corsan, George Hebden. At home in the water: swimming, diving, life saving, water sports, natatoriums, p.150 (1914)
Though it never returned to the Olympics, the event remained a standard event in U.S. amateur and collegiate sporting events for some time. By 1912, S.B. Willis, a plunger at the University of Pennsylvania covered 80 feet in 60 seconds, breaking the prior U.S. record of 75 feet 11 inches held by Millard Kaiser.Colby, Frank Moore (ed.) The New international year book, p. 695 (1913)(10 March 1912). Willis Best Plunger, The New York Times
By 1917 several attempts had been made to abolish the event at college and other competitions in the United States,(9 September 1917). FAVORS RETAINING DISTANCE PLUNGE, The New York Times(13 October 1913). College Swimmers Meet, The New York Times ("An attempt was also made to have the plunge for distance abandoned in favor of a fifty-yard back-stroke race, but the motion did not go through.") and the NCAA dropped it in 1925.(16 April 1925). Swim Body Adopts 'Dead Start' System: National Collegiate Association Also Abolishes the Plunge for Distance, The New York Times The English A.S.A. reportedly ceased holding its official plunging championship after 1937, though some sources say it ran through 1946.Bryom, Glen (15 July 2010). Zimbabwe's Frank Parrington, 85, Swimming World Magazine
Female swimmers also competed in the plunge. American swimmer Charlotte Boyle (also a 1920 Olympian) set the American record a few times between 1917 and 1920, reaching 66 feet at an exhibition meet in March 1920. Two Detroit Northern High School students, Helen Nolan and Dorothy McWood, set records in the early 1920s, which McWood reportedly setting a new American record of 66 feet 10 inches in April 1922. Hilda Dand set a new world record of 71 feet in 1925.
On the men's side, Bootle's last record of 82 feet 7 inches set in 1906 stood for 14 years, until broken by two inches by 17-year-old Fred Schwedt of Detroit in 1920. English swimmer Francis Parrington smashed that record in 1926 by traveling 85 feet 6 inches, and in 1933 he hit 86 feet 8 inches, which remains the world record.
In 1941, sportswriter John Kieran referenced the sport as once "a regular event in swimming meets" but "now abandoned."Keiran, John (20 January 1941). Plunging Ahead Through Hot Water, The New York Times
There is some evidence that the quirky nature of the sport is occasionally gaining the attention of modern swimmers. In June 2012, Danish female swimmer Laura Funch successfully plunged the full length of a pool in approximately 101 seconds.(26 June 2012). Laura Funch (DEN), 25 meters in the plunge for distance, Swimmer's Daily Divers approached at the 2016 Summer Olympics by the press about the sport also found it fascinating. Furthermore, the Michigan State University men's and women's swimming teams participate in this event annually at their yearly held Alumni Swimming Meet, and keep records for The Plunge event, following the same rules previously used in the early 20th century.
Variations In shorter pools, a variation of the event was based on how fast the contestant traveled the length of the pool. For example, in 1927, it was reported that R.E. Howell had set a new world's record in a 60-foot tank, going "the length of the pool in 0:14 2–5."(17 February 1927). Howell of Chicago A.A. Sets New World's Mark in Plunge, The New York Times Competitions were also reported at 75-foot lengths.(17 January 1920). Yale Swimmers Defeat Columbia, The New York Times (reporting that Richard Meagher of Yale had set a new collegiate record of 47 4–5 seconds)
An 1893 English book on swimming also notes the existence of a variation of plunging where participants dive feet first, which it reports to already be rarely practiced.
In all plunge events, because divers could not control where they drifted after diving, typically one diver competed at a time. A 1922 A.A.U. rule change planned to make plungers dive in groups, causing concern that collisions would inevitably occur among participants.(8 January 1922). Swimming Rules Arouse Criticism, The New York Times
Records Compiling accurate details of record plunges presents some difficulty, as sometimes records were set in exhibition competitions, and American and English sources do not always seem to check to see whether a claimed "world record" was perhaps only a national record, but available sources do appear to confirm the following records:
Men's distance plunge world record (60 second limit) 86 feet 8 inches. Set on 23 September 1933 by British swimmer F.W. Parrington, the current world record 85 feet 10 inches. 1927 by F.W. Parrington 85 feet 6 inches. September 1926 by F.W. Parrington 84 feet 6 inches, March 7, 1924 by Ted Abrams (US)Citizens Manual for 1925, p. 77 82 feet 9 inches. 1 March 1920 by American Fred Schwedt. 82 feet 7 inches. 5 September 1906 by W. Taylor, at Bootle, England 79 feet 3 inches. 3 September 1902 by W. Taylor at Bootle.(18 March 1905). Human Fish Club Plans for Swimming, The New York Times 78 feet 9 inches. 14 September 1898 by British swimmer W. Taylor 75 feet 7 inches. 10 October 1888 by British swimmer G.A. Blake at Lambeth Baths** 76 feet 3 inches. 15 July 1886 by British swimmer B. Jones (contested)Swimming, Outing (December 1889) 73 feet 1 inch. 15 March 1880, by J. Strickland, in Melbourne. However, dive was reportedly from 5 feet above water.(3 February 1883). Amateur Swimming – Plunging, Spirit of the Times 68 feet 4 inches. 17 July 1879 by R. Green, Liverpool. 65 feet. 31 July 1879 by T. Ingram, in London. Reported as best on record at the time by British Sporting Life. 62 feet 8 inches. 13 October 1876 by H.J. Green, in London (though he was penalized 6 feet for unknown reasons, so accuracy may be dubious)(19 October 1876). Swimming, The Country, p. 370, col. 3 62 feet 7 inches. 1 October 1878 by Horace Davenport. 56 feet 8 inches. 1870 by F. Young.(16 December 1882). Notes on Sport in England, The Mercury (Hobart) The English Plunging Championship instituted a 60-second time limit in 1893, so records prior to 1893 may be for longer times.
Men's 60-foot plunge (best time) 14.4 sec. (handheld) 16 February 1927 by Richard E. Howell (Chicago).(17 February 1927). Howell of Chicago A.A. Sets New World's Mark In Plunge, The New York Times 15.4 sec. 1923 by Nathaniel T. Guernsey, Jr. of Yale University. (also set records in 75-foot plunge) 15.6 sec. 27 February 1918 by John P. Lichter.Eckersall, Walter (28 February 1918). , Chicago Tribune 16.8 sec. 30 January 1918 by Benjamin H. Princell.Princell Sets New Mark in Tank, The New York Times (claimed world's record)Eckersall, Walter (31 January 1918). , Chicago Tribune 17.4 sec, J.P. Lichter. 18.8 sec. 26 February 1916 by J.C.RedmondHandbook for Comrades, p. 183 (1920) 19 sec. 16 February 1916 by John P. Lichter.(18 February 1916). New Plunge Record, The New York Times 19.2 sec. 8 December 1915 by Craig Redmond.(9 December 1915.) Claims New Record for 60-Foot Plunge, Bakersfield Californian 21.6 sec. 25 February 1914 by John P. Lichter.The Chicago daily news almanac and yearbook for 1915, p. 680 (1914)
Women's distance plunge record (60-second limit) 71 feet. 1925 by Hilda Dand of Westminster, EnglandChambers's encyclopaedia, p. 816 (1927) 70 feet 6 inches. 1933 by Dorothy Rennie in Vancouver, is likely the Canadian record.