'records And The Human Touch'

"Records are the bare bones of athletics, like numbers to a mathematician. Unless given a human touch they have no life, no appeal. Statisticians may juggle with them, some perhaps finding in their concentration on record figures a vicarious fulfillment of their own ambition. Like odds quoted on horses, times may tell you something of a man's chance of winning, but they can tell you nothing of his style or his length of stride, nor can a javelin thrower's distances tell you of his grace of throw. They can give you no conception of the joy there is in watching a champion athlete's supreme integration of movement, his genius at harnessing efficiently power that is partly inborn and partly ingrained by years of training. It is this human touch which makes the difference between the lasting excitement of men running and the temporary thrill of speedway or motor racing."