While training for the 1912 Summer Olympics
in Sweden, Duke Kahanamoku managed to save the lives of at least two men. Duke
was perfecting his already impressive swimming stroke under the watchful eye of
George Kistler, coach of the University of Pennsylvania swimming team.
Kahanamoku was residing near Philadelphia with the family of Lew Henderson when, as reported in the May 16th, 1912 Evening Edition of the Hawaiian Star, Duke assisted in the
rescue of two sailors, who went in swimming in the Schuylkill River and became
exhausted. Duke and a companion
pulled them out and got them safely to shore
Here is Duke explaining the situation in a
letter to Lew.
“We were out canoeing all day yesterday up
and down the Schuylkill River.
Say, Lew; there’s certainly some crowd along the river here. We rescued a couple of sailors
yesterday. One of them could
hardly swim: just managed to get
ashore. I believe the two did not
know how to handle themselves.”
Only a few
weeks prior, Duke had dived for a man who had gone to the bottom of the
swimming pool at Atlantic City.
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