A century ago, the modern Olympic Games were just 28 years old. The Games were held in Paris, just as they are in 2024. Then, as now, swimming was a star event.
The book “Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Redefined Sports and Launched the Modern Olympic Age,” by Todd Balf, looks at the Games through one of the most thrilling races of the 1924 Games: the 100-meter sprint. Participating were three of the world’s fastest swimmers: Duke Kahanamoku, Johnny Weissmuller, and Katsuo Takaishi.
Duke Kahanamoku was the world’s reigning swimmer going into the Games. He was Hawaiian; Hawaii was then a U.S. territory. He had won multiple gold and silver medals at the 1912 and 1920 Olympics, and was expected to triumph a third time. Weissmuller was the new phenomenon. An immigrant kid, he grew up poor in Chicago. He was favored over Kahanamoku, despite it being his first Olympics. Katsuo Takaishi, a Japanese, was also a newcomer to the world’s Olympics stage. It was the first time Japan brought an organized team to the Olympics. No one believed they would do well.
The book opens with Balf examining all three at length, weaving their lives in with the history of the modern Olympics and modern international competitive athletics. All three defied early 20th-century amateur athletics “norms.” Eugenicists embedded these “norms” in amateur athletics to highlight the supposed physical and intellectual superiority of upper-class whites.
The eugenics movement was beloved by progressives. Even Japan was class and race conscious. The 1924 Games were the first in which Japan permitted working-class Japanese to participate.
The Hawaiians and Japanese weren’t supposed to win. Even Weissmuller, with his immigrant and poor working-class background, was looked down on by American amateur athletics organizers. Balf shows the obstacles all three had to overcome.
To preserve amateur status, Kahanamoku couldn’t take paid work involved with water, including acting. Weissmuller had to overcome claims that he was born in Austria-Hungary to participate on the American team. Takaishi helped dig the swimming pool where he learned to swim. They were not today’s pampered athletes.
The triumph of “Three Kings” is that it shows how these three overcame adversity to become Olympic winners and successful afterward. Kahanamoku became a movie star, although his fame was eclipsed by Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan. Takaishi went on to lead the Japanese swim team in the 1932 Olympics, where they dominated the medals. Best of all, despite their disparate backgrounds, the three became good friends.
