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Three Kings

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What to expect

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 one-hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring the world’s three fastest swimmers—American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi—had the cultural impact of the Super Bowl and Wimbledon and the World Cup finals put together. Never before had a major swimming event 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 god-like heroes, embodying the hopes of those who called them their own in the US and abroad. They personified strength and speed and the glamor 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.

Critics Review

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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

  • “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 Deja, author of New York, New York and The Third Coast

  • “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

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