About the Book
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.
Each man was a trailblazer and a bona fide celebrity in an age when athletes typically weren't famous. Kahanamoku was Hawaii's first superstar, largely responsible for making the state the popular travel destination it is today. Weissmuller, a poor immigrant, put Chicago on the sports map and would make it big as Hollywood's first Tarzan. Takaishi inspired Japan to compete on the world stage and helped turn its swimmers into Olympic powerhouses. He and Kahanamoku in particular shattered the myth of white superiority when it came to sports, putting the lie to the decade's burgeoning eugenics movement.
Three Kings traces the careers and rivalries of these men and the epochal times they lived in. The 1920s were transformative, not just socially but for sports as well. For the first time, athletes of color were given a fair (though still not equal) chance, and competition wasn't limited to the wealthy and privileged. Our modern-day conception of athleticism and competition--especially as it relates to the Olympics--traces back to this era and athletes like Kahanamoku, Weissmuller, and Takaishi, whose hard-won victories paved the way for all who followed.
About the Author :
Todd Balf is a New York Times bestselling writer known for his ability to identify little-known people and events in the worlds of adventure and sports and bring their stories vividly to life. He is author of the critically acclaimed adventure sagas The Last River and The Darkest Jungle and the biography Major, about the pioneering Black bicycle racer Marshall "Major" Taylor. Balfʼs writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harperʼs, GQ, Outside, Runnerʼs World, and elsewhere. He is also the author of the Scribd Original Complications, a memoir about how illness reshaped his own life as an athlete.
Edoardo Ballerini is a two-time winner of the Audio Publisher Association's Best Male Narrator Award, a two-time winner of Society of Voice Arts Awards, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019.
Review :
"Balf provides a tense account of the climactic race...This is worth dipping into."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"Move over, Boys in the Boat. Here is a rollicking tale of three boys who didn't need a boat to glide with grace and vigor across Olympic waters. Todd Balf's nuanced cross-cultural study of vintage swim racing is powered by three titanic characters who fiercely competed at the genesis moment when the quest for aquatic speed was coalescing as an international sport."
-- "Hampton Sides, author of The Wide Wide Sea, Ghost Soldiers, and Blood and Thunder"
"This surprising, fascinating book shows the twentieth century taking its very imperfect shape through the competition between three men--one Hawaiian, one Japanese, the third a German Chicagoan--at one of the most basic human activities: swimming. Three Kings is a must-have for any sports-history shelf!"
-- "Thomas Dyja, author of New York, New York, New York and The Third Coast"
"Three Kings delivers everything I look for in a sports book--great writing, deep research, and a thrilling story that makes the reader cheer not just for the athletes but for humanity. An original and unforgettable work."
-- "Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life and Ali: A Life"
"Three Kings is a look back at a critical Olympic moment that has so much to say about the great struggles of our time. It tells the story of three heroic swimmers battling not just in the pool but also fighting racism, poverty, ostracism, life-threatening illness, and deep personal secrets--only to emerge victorious. This is a narrative about the triumph of the human spirit against all odds--about how ordinary men truly became kings."
-- "Kevin Baker, author of The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City and Paradise Alley"
"A complex and beautifully researched history of three swimming titans. It gives us what's often missing in the stories--character and heart."
-- "Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and American Chinatown"
"In this beautifully stitched and deeply human narrative, Todd Balf dives far beneath the surface of early Olympic glory and finds an entirely fresh story of celebrity, race, and nation-building in the fast lanes of a swimming pool."
-- "Jonathan Alter, author of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life"
"This is a page-turning, deeply immersive, wildly inspiring book whose impact goes far beyond sport. Todd Balf uncovers a lost golden age of swimming and brings it to brilliant and urgent life, illuminating it with his deep insight, empathy, and thrilling storytelling. A must-read."
-- "Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code, The Culture Code, and Lance Armstrong's War"
"Todd Balf deftly recreates a time of bobbed cuts and race riots; of forgotten rivalries and shocking secrets; and of hostile forces swirling around three gifted athletes of opposing skin colors but identical in gold medal dreams. Balf has unearthed a treasure trove of new information, revealing stunning seeds of betrayal--and a riveting book."
-- "Jackie MacMullen, author of When the Game Was Ours and the first woman to win the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing"
