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The 700 Japanese sportswriters who had accompanied their Olympic team of 122 had a hard time thinking up unaccustomed superlatives for young Miyazaki, but they had an even harder time later in the week. Miyazaki and his three teammates from Waseda University— Masanori Yusa, Hisakichi Toyoda and Takashi Yokoyama—made a procession of the 800-metre relay, beating the U. S. by 15 yd. in 8:58.4. or 38 sec. faster than the record. The 100-metre backstroke title which the U. S. swimmers have won since 1912 was a clean sweep for Japan, with 19-year-old Masaji Kiyokawa in first place, Toshio Irie and Kentaro Kawatsu almost tied 5 ft. behind him. In the 400-metre free style final Clarence ("Buster") Crabbe won the first men's swimming race tor the U. S. by overtaking the world's record holder Jean Taris of France in the last few strokes. Beady-eyed Tsutomu Oyokata was in third place with two more Japanese behind him. Yoshiyuki Tsuruta, 27-year-old Manchurian, barely distanced his 14-year-old compatriot, Reizo Koike, in the 200-metre breaststroke and in the 1,500-metre free-style race, climactic event of the week, two more Japanese urchins finished first and second. Little Kusuo Kitamura, 14, raced the whole distance shoulder to shoulder with his teammate Shozo Makino, 15, before he sprinted in the last two laps to win by 2 yd. in 19:14.4 —24.3 sec. under the record.
Springboard Diving. Spectators at the men's finals were amazed when they saw a small, round-shouldered man dressed in his street clothes scuttle up to the edge of the pool and flop awkwardly in. He was a German sportswriter, winning a $100 bet. Pleased, he returned to the press-box, tried to dry himself with a handkerchief while Michael ("Mickey Riley") Galitzen. tow-haired, 22-year-old law student at Southern California, won the championship with 161.58 points to 158.54 for Harold ("Dutch") Smith, who had been unable to practice for a week because of a strained stomach muscle. In the women's finals, flax-haired Georgia Coleman evened her score with little Katherine ("Minnow") Rawls who had beaten her in the Olympic trials. Jane Fauntz of Chicago piled up a lead in the compulsory routine but slipped up on a running full twist on her third voluntary dive, took third place with Minnow Rawls second.
Platform Diving. Heavily strapped with adhesive tape where she had sprained her back the day before, Dorothy Poynton still managed to beat Georgia Coleman by a comfortable point margin, 40.26 to 35.56. Her best dive was a running swan from the 10-metre platform. The men's championship was closer. This time Harold Smith took the lead, lost it twice to Galitzen, won it back before he finished his performance with a flying forward one-and-a-half somersault that gave him the championship by a fraction, 124.80 points to 124.28 for Galitzen.