Duke Kahanamoku

Biography

Duke Kahanamoku was one of the great Olympic heroes of all time. Born in Hawaii, Duke grew up swimming and entered the 1912 Stockholm Olympics for the United States (Hawaii was not yet a state, but a U.S. possession)and became an international star by winning the Men's 100-Meter Freestyle, something he repeated eight years later at the 1920 Antwerp games (there was no 1916 Olympics as there was World War I) and he won the silver medal while Johnny Weissmuller won the gold (Duke's brother Sam won the bronze) at the 1924 Paris Olympics. All told, Duke won three gold and two silver medals in four Olympic games. He later had a Hollywood career in which he usually played a native chief or a Hawaiian king.