The Watermen

The feel-good underdog story of the first American swimmer to win Olympic gold, and an account of the rebirth of the modern Olympics-for fans of The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit.

Today, America excels at Olympic swimming, the U.S. team has won more gold medals than the next eleven countries combined. But, in the early twentieth century, few Americans knew how to swim, and as a competitive sport, it was almost unheard of. That is, until Charles Daniels took to the water.

On the surface, young Charles had it all: high-society parents, a place at an exclusive New York City prep school, summer vacations in the Adirondacks. But, the teenager suffered from a sadistic father, who mired the family in bankruptcy and scandal before abandoning Charles and his mother altogether. Charles's only source of joy was swimming. But, with no one to teach him, he struggled with technique, until he caught the eye of two immigrant coaches hell-bent on building a U.S. swim program to rival the British Empire's seventy-year domination of the sport.

The timing was right for American swimmers to prove themselves at the newly revived Olympic Games, first held in the U.S. in 1904. Interwoven with the origin story of American swimming is the compelling history of how French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin invented the modern Olympics. Struggling to gain support in an era when competitive sports were still in their infancy, he persevered to see the first modern Games held in Athens, in 1896. A dozen years later, Daniels's hard-fought rise climaxed in the 1908 London Games, where British judges set a trap they were sure would defeat the American upstart.

Set in the early days of a rapidly changing twentieth century, The Watermen-a term used at the time to describe men skilled in water sports-tells an engrossing story of grit, of the growth of a major new sport, in which Americans would prevail, and a young man's determination to excel.