THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SPORT

THE SOVIET PEOPLE'S URGE TO PLAY MADE A GREAT IMPRESSION ON MAYER AND MCCOMBE. SOME OF THE SETTINGS MAY HAVE OLD-FASHIONED LOOK BUT THERE IS NOTHING BACKWARD IN THE THIRST FOR SPORTS AND RECREATION

Dominoes and babysitting in a backyard. This is a very popular Sunday occupation

An officer trudges across Moscow street with child's bicycle purchased at government store

Stirring volleyball game occurs in apartment courtyard. Volleyball is a highly popular sport, with millions of men and women playing on teams

Young boys carry footballs while one of them guides his blind grandfather on sidewalk. Soccer is the most popular of all Soviet sports

Curious citizens of Leningrad gather around a sailboat which uses full-length wooden battens to control shape of its sail

Home-made ketch skims along Moscow-Volga Can: with crude gaff-rigged mizzen, Marconi mainsail

Leningrad girls, wearing contrasting costumes for holiday boating, man Snipelike craft

Class boats on Canal resemble an odd mixture of U.S.'s Hampton and Wood Pussy types

Two sculls race in choppy waters of Moscow-Volga Canal. Despite recent Henley defeat Russians are among world's leading oarsmen

Soviet women clad in surprisingly up-to-date bathing suits wave gaily to an excursion boat before a swim in Moscow-Volga Canal

Wearing a cap, a young man heaves at the oars while spending a few idle hours with his best girl in a rowboat at a park near Moscow

Old tire tube serves as a float for youth enjoying cool swim in waters of heavily traveled canal

TWELVE PHOTOS