It is usually thought that athletes cannot be developed upon a non-meat diet (though the fallacy of this argument has long since been disproved, in reality). It will be well to give a few instances, from among many, of the success of vegetarians over their opponents. It is true that these have not been numerous, but then, there are but few vegetarian athletes; and proportionately their triumphs have been singularly frequent. A useful summary of some of these successes is given in Mr Charles Forward’s book, “The Food of the Future.” He says:
“In the latter part of the year 1880 Gaston de Bennet, a young Austrian, 17 years of age, and a vegetarian of the strictest sect, using neither eggs nor milk, won the first prize in a grand swimming contest in Lord Harlick’s Park ... against 11 flesh-eaters, most of them full-grown men. He also won the first prize in the ‘Cooler’ race, and, though well drenched, kept his wet clothes on for hours, and took no harm. As a flesh eater, he had been extremely delicate, very subject to cold, and constantly taking physic.
“In the year 1884, the Brothers Whatton and Mr A. W. Rumnay, as representatives of Cambridge, in the inter-university races, carried all before them—a fact which directed considerable public attention to their vegetarian dietary.
“The first path race of the vegetarian cycling club took place in 1891, but it was not until 1893 that the performances of Messrs S. H. Potter, H. Sharp, and W. Kilby, turned out so far in advance of previous work that the Committee decided upon issuing a Club Challenge Shield. During 1895, two of its members ... gained first and second prizes, in the North London Club’s Road Race; and, in the same year, Mr H. E. Brinning wrested the Club Challenge Shield from Mr Warlow, who had won it a year previously.
“Since then, Mr Brinning had been to Calcutta, and soon after his arrival, won from scratch nearly every race he competed in, besides becoming possessor of three challenge shields put up for competition in Calcutta, and securing the cycling championship of India.
“The achievements of the members of the Vegetarian Cycling Club were much discussed in vegetarian circles all over the world; and particularly among German vegetarians; and when, in 1893, a walking competition took place from Berlin to Vienna, several vegetarians were amongst the competitors, who numbered 16 in all. The winner was Otto Peitz, who reached the judge’s box at 4.40 P.M., on the 4th of June. About an hour later, another vegetarian, Elsässer, arrived. No other competitors arrived until about 22 hours later, when, at about 3 o’clock on the following day, Carl Nauhaus passed the post. He was not a vegetarian, but he expressed the opinion that it was a mistake to eat much flesh on a long walk. The fourth arrival was a Berlin university law student, arriving on the sixth of June, at 6.52, whilst a few minutes later Fritz Goldbach reached the Committee Box. Dr Heller, a Vienna physician, and an opponent of vegetarianism, partook of raw flesh on the journey; but on the second day he began to reconsider the task before him, and he subsequently posted a dispatch to the Committee, announcing his withdrawal from the contest, and went on to Vienna by train. Owing to a technical breach of the rules, Elsässer put in a claim for the gold medal. He had been a strict vegetarian for over four years, not even using eggs, milk, butter or cheese. All that he took during his walk was bread, fruit and water, and, on one or two occasions, a glass of seltzer. He had undergone no regular training at all. Otto Peitz, who secured the second prize, consumed bread and butter, and occasionally eggs and milk. He was a compositor by trade, and being poor, had to ‘rough it,’ not being able to pay for a bed during the walk....
“On the 21st of January, 1894, the ‘Winter Walk’ of the German Long Distance Walk Society took place, the route being from Berlin to Fredericksburg, a distance of about 30 miles. The roads were soft and muddy, and the weather rainy and windy. Of the first four competitors who arrived at the winning post, two were vegetarians—namely, Frederick Bruhn and Carl Harmann. That the result of these walking matches was no mere ‘fluke’ is clear from the fact that the vegetarian competitors have repeated their successes on subsequent occasions; and impartial students of dietetics were ready to admit the soundness of the vegetarian position.”