Woman and Sports

★ A specialist in physical education, and one of its leaders among us.

★ One of Lebanon's champions in swimming, weightlifting, marksmanship, and other sports.

★ For some twenty years he has held the post of Director of Physical Education at the American University of Beirut.

Q — Which countries, Ustad, occupy at the present time the first place in the world of sport?

A — Until recently the United States occupied this position, but it became clear to us, from what we lately observed of the results of the recent athletic games at Helsinki, that the Soviet Union has outstripped the rest of the civilized nations. England, France, and Switzerland also distinguished themselves... And it is to be noticed that the countries occupying the first places in social advancement are for the most part the same ones in the first rank of athletic advancement.

Q — What, Ustad, in your opinion, are the modern sports that suit woman?

A — The modern woman has realized the extent of the benefit of sports and their effect on her beauty; she has excelled in the various games and has practiced them all — even wrestling, for example. In my opinion, woman would do well to turn away from the rough, harsh games that do not suit her nature, toward tennis, swimming, skiing, basketball, and light, graceful games of that kind.

Q — I notice from my study of history that most famous women and film actresses practiced sports to a considerable degree; is my observation in place?

A — Yes, your observation is in place! There is no doubt that those women, enlightened in their thinking and wide in their reading, realized that in athletic exercise lies a guarantee of preserving their beauty and of improving that beauty; and so they are forever attending to their bodies with athletic exercise at the swimming pools, on the race courses, and on the snows of the mountains.

Q — And are there kinds of physical sport which woman may not take up, for physiological reasons, for example?

A — I have already given my opinion on this subject. All sports, so long as they involve no muscular strain, are suitable for woman; and I prefer for her the games that give her grace and lightness, and keeping away from harsh games like wrestling.

Q — In view of your long experience as Director of Physical Education at the American University of Beirut, do you believe the Lebanese girl keeps pace with the Western girl and can compete with her in the arts of physical sport?

A — I said before that athletic advancement is proportionate to social advancement in every country of the world; and since we in Lebanon are moving with steady steps along the road of progress, I believe

that nothing hinders our girls from taking their place, in time, in the ranks of the world's sportswomen.

Q — Do you recall, Mr. Tarabulsi, in approximately what year swimming spread among Lebanese women on a wide scale, so that public opinion no longer looked on it with disapproval?

A — Around the year 1935 the swimming movement among the women of Lebanon registered a wide step forward, and the number of women swimmers reached the hundreds, so that we were no longer astonished to see girls in bathing dress.

Q — Why is there so great a difference between us and the Westerners in enthusiasm for attending sporting events? We notice that they cover long distances, sometimes exceeding six hours by automobile, to attend a football match.

A — This is a question I have often asked myself, and been at a loss to answer. In my opinion this trait among the Westerners is one of the marks of advancement and civilization, and their eagerness to watch sports is proof of their appreciation of them and of their belief in their physiological, aesthetic, and social benefits.

Q — What is the rate of the University girls' taking to sports today compared with five years ago?

A — There is no doubt that the American University girls' taking to the practice of sports is in steady progress. But this progress is not what we could wish, and it remains below the level we want for them. The reason, in my opinion, goes back to the fact that these students come to the University from various circles and educational institutions, and most of them lack the modern athletic guidance which most of our secondary schools are wanting in.

Q — Do you believe athletes have a special diet?

A — The athlete is supposed to eat a quantity of food proportionate to his bodily effort, neither exceeding it nor falling short of it. The general rule we athletes follow is to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and to cut down on starches, fatty foods, and foods hard to digest — and this is a very broad subject.

Q — And what do you advise stout ladies? What is the average number of kilograms one of them can lose without that loss affecting her heart and her general health?

A — There are certain athletic exercises and kinds of "régime" capable of reducing stoutness in ladies' bodies, and three or four kilograms can be removed each month without danger to the general health. This of course requires a sincere will, and perseverance and constancy in the "régime," for this fat, which has gathered over a number of years, must not be made to disappear quickly, since that might have a bad effect on the general health, and on the heart in particular.

Q — Does our women's laxity in practicing sports bear a direct relation to their disposition to stoutness, compared with Western women?

A — Yes; but our women's laxity in sports is not the only cause. There is a far more important cause, namely the ladies' ignorance of the kind and quantity of the food they take — whereas we see the Western woman appreciating the dangers of indulging in eating everything; she limits the quantity of the foods that cause stoutness, and at the same time she keeps up her sports.

Q — Have you a word of guidance addressed particularly to our lady readers?

A — Yes. Few are the women who believe that bodily beauty extends beyond the region of the face; and so they go to excess in the use of powders and in the artistry of dressing the hair, and no further, and pay their bodies no care worth mentioning by keeping up the sports that help toward the body's grace and suppleness and check its stoutness. I assure my gracious reader that beauty, in woman as in everything, is comprehensive, whole, and indivisible; and to be truly beautiful she must observe this. In conclusion, I call upon Lebanese women to expose themselves to the sun and the open air.