"Horses Under the Hood"

When the University of Iowa's Wally Ris, a 195-lb. porpoise of a man, set out for the Olympic games last year, his father was mad: better his son should be painting the house in Chicago than off swimming in London. Even when Wally came home with the zoo-meter free-style championship, his dad, a Polish emigrant who speaks only a little English, balked at letting him go to Bermuda to swim again. He stuck a paintbrush in Wally's fin, and spoke one word of English forcibly: "Commence."

Last week, his chores done, 25-year-old

Swimmer Ris was in Florida. At Daytona Beach's Welch Pools, he sized up his competition for the National A.A.U. zoo-yd. race with a clear water eye. His big feet gripping the tiled rim of the pool, Wally knew just how he would swim this one--in the same slow-starting style that keeps his friends' and coaches' hearts in their mouths until the last lap.

With the gun, he launched himself into the water like a spent torpedo. He rolled a spray-spattered eye at the four other sprinters splashing in other lanes until he saw whom he had to beat. Then, head down, he started churning, with a fast arm but a slow, deep kick that is uncommon to sprinters. A pinwheel fast turn and a lung-busting finish did the trick as usual. When Wally's big hand touched the tile 51.4 seconds after the start, he could add another A.A.U. championship to his collection of titles (fortnight ago, he was voted the all-collegiate swimmer of 1949).

Wally Ris, the only man to captain Iowa's team two years running, was ambitious to be a varsity football player rather than a swimmer, still regrets that he didn't make the gridiron grade. He didn't take up swimming until he hurt a knee playing high-school football. The knee still bothers him. His favorite story is how it clicked back into place before his big Olympic race, while he was marching to the flagpole for some welcoming ceremonies.

A senior this year (he is a Navy veteran), Wally wears his swimming fame lightly, but diligently grinds through 2,000 yards of daily practice. Iowa Coach David Armbruster says his star pupil has "a natural, aggressive heart," and better yet, "horses under the hood." Wally's own formula, he says, is knowing when to pull out when other swimmers are relaxing, and "usually that's enough to sneak me in." Swimming that way, he managed to sneak in ahead of ex-Yaleman Alan Ford at London last year; but he has yet, swimming that way, to sneak inside Ford's world record of 49.7 for 100 yards.

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