Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Launched the Modern Olympic Age

Balf (The Last River) presents a vivid snapshot of competitive swimming in the 1920s through the stories of three star athletes (German American Johnny Weissmuller, native Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, and Japan’s Katsuo Takaishi) and their performance in the men’s 100 meter freestyle at the 1924 Paris Olympic games. Foregrounding the complicated ethnic politics of the era, Balf notes that Weissmuller faced anti-German sentiment growing up in Chicago during WWI only to later be lauded by eugenicists for his “Adonis” physique. Kahanamoku, whose success in the 1912 and 1920 Olympics made him a celebrity in Hawaii, took a tortuous route to the Paris games, coming under fire for competing in a white-only pool during a qualifying race and for violating the rules of the Amateur Athletic Union by performing in a Hollywood film. Elsewhere, Balf discusses how Takaishi, despite finishing fifth in Paris (Weissmuller took gold and Kahanamoku silver), made a strong enough showing that he sparked “a revolution in Japan,” where he went on to lead a national swimming program that “in a mere eight years supplanted the U.S. as the world’s swimming powerhouse.” Balf provides a tense account of the climactic race, though his argument that his subjects “were forebearers to today’s modern athlete” goes underdeveloped. Still, this is worth dipping into. (July)