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

Free Download Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Launched the Modern Olympic Age by Todd Balf, Edoardo Ballerini, Scribd, Inc
English | July 02, 2024 | ISBN: B0CW3SXJ42 | 8 hours and 37 minutes | MP3 64 Kbps | 237 Mb
For fans of The Boys in the Boat, and marking the 100th anniversary of the Paris Olympics, the never-before-told story of three athletes who defied the odds to usher in a golden age of sports
Even today, it's considered one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. The hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring three of the world's fastest swimmers-American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller, and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi-had the cultural impact of other milestone moments in Olympic history: Jesse Owens's podiums in Berlin and John Carlos's raised, black-gloved fist in Mexico City. Never before had an Olympic swimming final prominently featured athletes of different races, and never had it been broadcast live. Across the globe, fans held their breath.
In less than a minute, an Olympic record would be shattered, and the three men would be scrutinized like few athletes before them. For the millions worldwide for whom swimming was a complete unknown, the trio did something few could imagine: moving faster through water than many could on land. As sportsmen, they were godlike heroes, embodying the hopes of those who called them their own, in the US and abroad. They personified strength and speed, and the glamour and innovation of the Roaring Twenties. But they also represented fraught assumptions about race and human performance. It was not only "East vs. West"-as newspapers in the 1920s described the competition with Japan-it was also brown versus white. Rich versus poor. New versus old. The race was about far more than swimming.