Tales from the 1924 Paris Games
Plus: a Venn diagram of scandal, murder, and American architecture
It’s the middle of summer and I’m headed out of town for the weekend, so this one’s gonna be quick. The 2024 Paris Olympics are upon us, and the Internet is predictably swimming with tales of the 1924 Paris Olympics. Here are three worth your time, starting with The Guardian:
Long before Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Caeleb Dressel, there was Duke Kahanamoku. In the early part of the 20th century, there might not have been a more dynamic and fascinating American Olympian than the swimmer plucked at 21 years old from Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach. … [W]hen he returned to Paris for the 1924 Olympics, Kahanomoku’s popularity had waned. On the afternoon of July 20, 1924, he finished second in the 100 meters to a boisterous, barrel-chested American from Illinois named Johnny Weissmuller. Kahanamoku never swam in the Olympics again. … Yet a century after that 100-meter race, and with the Olympics once again in Paris, Weissmuller is the one largely forgotten while Kahanamoku might be as famous now as at the height of his swimming glory.
And History News Network revisits: “How Europe reacted when Ethiopia tried to join the famed global sporting tradition at the 1924 Paris Olympics.” (Hint: “Inviting more African athletes to compete in Europe’s own competitions was viewed as a dangerous precedent they assiduously avoided, lest empowering Africans athletically bolster them politically as well.”)
Elsewhere/in non-Olympics history, this next Casey Sherman book sounds like a real doozy:
That’s all I’ve got for now. But there’s some really good stuff in the pipeline, so stay tuned…