Evelyne complains about the strenuous exercises for a coming Charleston marathon, but her instructor Gaston reminds her that this is pretext for their shared moments together.

Her husband, the dieting boxer Ochsenschwanz, enters and watches them eat breakfast with growing displeasure, erupting when he catches them kissing: a blow meant for Gaston instead demolishes his new training machine.

Anna Maria, a homely looking student, enters timidly: "I'm conscious of what I'm doing, but my subconscious is too strong" and is forced to hide under the table when Ochsenschwanz brings a journalist in for an interview over his training breakfast.

A thinly disguised Gaston has been observing; he talks Anna Maria into stripping to her long underwear and posing as the dummy on the new training machine he is delivering.

A minister enters to inform him that he's been chosen for the Olympics, but instead of responding to pleas to turn the machine off, he says by no means would he steal even a minute from Ochsenschwanz' training, after all, "You are the glory of the nation!"