Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

A couple weeks ago I kicked off my look back at great male swimmers of the past with an article on Don Schollander. This week's article is for Erik Hochstein, who reminded me of one of my personal favorites. This week's article will take a look back in time at Duke Kahanamoku, a great swimmer in his own right but perhaps overshadowed in his day and very likely better at his other sport.

Duke's story has many more facets than I can probably cover in a 1000 word article. He was many things: the father of modern surfing, a victim of strong prejudice against native hawaiians, and a phenomenal swimmer. However, for the purposes of this article, I won't discuss his surfing ability. After all, this is floswimming not flosurfing. If you'd like to read about his impact on that sport, go here:

http://starbulletin.com/1999/07/29/sports/story1.html

Kahanamoku first established himself as an international force when a 21 year old in 1911 he broke the existing world records in the 100 yard, 50 yard, and 220 yard freestyle. As odd as it seems that a previously unheralded 21 year would suddenly smash world records, it belies a discussion of the nature of swimming as a sport in the beginning of the 20th century. Remember, the nascent Olympic movement had just begun in 1896. Swimmers were not competing at pools and heavy handed amateurism rules were enforced.

While it may seem noble today that amateurism subtracts some measure of money and greed from sport, keep in mind that amateurism effectively guaranteed that only the upper class individuals could support a full time career in athletics. Prior to Kahanamoku, the United States fastest swimmer had been Charlie Daniels. Daniels had grown up in the lap of luxury, the son of a wealthy lawyer free to pursue Olympic glory on his family's fortune. Kahanamoku had a modest upbringing that was typical for native Hawaiians on an island where most of the wealthiest people were white non-natives who had come to island and founded plantations.

In fact, a sort of cultural elitism colored Kahanamoku's earliest accomplishments. His record breaking effort in 1911 was not recognized for many years as swimming officials. Kahanamoku's performance would force Americans to confront the reality that the fastest swimmer in the world was a non-white native of a land that been consumed by America's manifest destiny. Kahanamoku was part of a greater early trend of Hawaiian swimmers, among them his brother and 1920 silver medalist Pua Kealoha. The so called "Australian Crawl", perfected at the turn of the century and the basis for modern freestyle, was in fact discovered in some recognizable form in many "primitive" seaside cultures by colonizing powers. Prior to this discovery, British swimming competitions were held in breaststroke. Native Hawaiians had no doubt known how to swim proper freestyle for centuries, while the stroke had been introduced to European descended peoples a few decades prior.

To state, however, that Kahanamoku's most important contributions were merely cultural would critically understate his actual swimming ability. In 1912 Kahanamoku's would effortlessly qualify for the Stockholm Olympics. He would win individual gold in the 100 freestyle, and then go on to win individual gold again in 1920 in the same event. In 1924, at the age of 34, he would finish second to Johnny Weismuller, considered by many to be the greatest freestyler of all time. Had the 1916 games been held it is likely he would have gone 100 meter gold in three consecutive Olympic games, a feat that has never been matched. As is, even if Gary Hall were to make the Olympic team and win gold this summer in the 50 free, he would in my mind only match Kahanamoku in terms of prolonged sprint freestyle dominance. Each would have won an individual gold in three consecutive games and finished with a silver in their other trip, with Kahanamoku's silver coming as an old competitor and Hall's in his first Olympics.

Kahanamoku was a swimmer unlike any we will see again. By all the measures of greatness he belongs among the best: his ability above his peers, his longevity and his contributions to sport and society in general.