Sport: Yards to Meters

At their annual meeting in Manhattan last week, officials of the Amateur Athletic Union decided unanimously to take a step that they have been talking about for 25 years: to abolish yards, feet and inches for measuring distances at U. S. track and field competitions, use meters instead, starting Jan. 1, 1933.

The meter—39.37 in.—represents a distance very close to null of a line around the earth passing through its poles. The yard is an arbitrary unit of unknown derivation. These were not the reasons for the A. A.U.’s step. Athletes of all nations except the U. S. and the British Empire measure distances in meters. The International Amateur Athletic Federation lists world’s records only for metrical distances. Because U. S. athletes compete at metrical distances only once every four years—before and during Olympic games —they fail to get their share of world’s records. Previously the A. A. U. declined to make the change because it would involve changes in the A. A. U. constitution. Last spring the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America voted to make the change if & when the A. A. U. favored it. Last summer’s Olympic Games again forced the matter on the A. A. U.’s attention. Yards will remain the standard unit for U. S. swimming races, temporarily at least, because almost all U. S. pools are either 25 or 50 yards long.