Duke: One of America's all-time swimming greats, The

Over the course of an Olympic swimming career that spanned from 1912 to 1924, Duke Kahanamoku won three golds and two silvers and established himself as one of America's all-time swimming greats.

A direct descendant of Hawaiian royalty, Duke spent much of his early career convincing skeptics from the mainland AAU (the Amateur Athletic Union, swimming's governing body) that his incredibly fast times--swum in Hawaii-were, indeed, legitimate.

This became such an issue that pools were measured and re-measured to confirm that Duke had swum full-length races.

Indeed they were-and Duke, who became the first man to swim 100 yards in under a minute, went as fast as 53 seconds for the 100 yard freestyle.

Duke had success of another kind in the pool-he was named to the Olympic water polo team for the 1932 Games... at the age of 41!

-By Steve Johnson

Copyright Sports Publications, Inc. Mar 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved