Three Kings
The epic true story of the 1924 Olympics and the swimming rivalry that defined them. Hawaiian legend Duke Kahanamoku. The brash Chicago favorite Johnny Weissmuller. Rising Japanese star Katsuo Takaishi. Their 100-meter race would draw the fervent interest of princes and presidents, race ranking scientists and bookies, Waikiki beachboys and Tokyo earthquake survivors. The international outcome meant more than gold; it meant master of the race.
Excerpts and Interviews
New book dives deep on 'Three Kings' during the golden age of swimming
Interview with Hawai’i Public Radio’s The Conversation , Aug. 23, 2024.
How race, celebrity and speed dominated the pool at the 1924 Olympics
Interview with The Guardian
Let the Games Begin
Excerpt published on Air Mail
'Three Kings' book explores swimming at the 1924 Olympics
Interview and excerpt with WBUR’s Here and Now
In ‘Three Kings,’ Todd Balf Tells Story of Leading Lights of 1924 Paris Olympics
Interview with Swimming World
Three Kings Author Todd Balf Details Weissmuller, Kahanamoku & Takaishi’s 1924 Paris Olympics
Interview and excerpt from Swim Swam
New Writing
Other Writing
Reviews of MAJOR
“The definitive biography… recreates the races in pulse-pounding prose” (Washington Post)
“Balf revels in the bicycle’s bone-shaking evolution and the top-gun fraternity of daredevils who literally risked life and limb to race.” (Entertainment Weekly)
“In Balf’s hands, Taylor becomes an earthbound figure, brooding about civil rights, swooning over his wife…Balf gives Taylor’s bigoted rival the kind of inspired devilry that makes him seem like the next obvious role for Daniel Day-Lewis.” (New York Times)
Reviews of THE LAST RIVER
“Difficult to put down…a fascinating book…a kind of kayaker’s Rashomon.” (New York Times)
“A rich and troubling story… a must-read for anyone who loved Into Thin Air.” (Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Isaac’s Storm)
“Heart-pounding…like Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, The Last River is a page-flipping odyssey fueled by the adrenaline and near-madness of a team of well-heeled world-class thrill seekers.” (Entertainment Weekly — named a top-ten nonfiction book for 2000)
I’ve been writing books for decades about odds-against American explorers and sporting strivers.
In explaining why he shifted gears and wrote only about John Adams and not Adams and Thomas Jefferson as he originally intended, the historian David McCullough is fond of saying that you go where the light is. I seem drawn to the dark and what my friend calls ‘unsung failures.’ My first two books, The Last River and The Darkest Jungle, focused on an American archetype, the doomed explorer. I hold a kind of reverence for obsessed people pointing to an impossible goal, whether finding a canal route in uncharted jungle or descending into a lost Himalayan canyon. Major, about black cycling champion Marshall “Major” Taylor, was rediscovering an American sports era, the early 1900s, and a figure lost to time. I see Three Kings in the same vein, almost a follow up to Major, set this time in the wild 1920s but focused on three forgotten giants of sport and the hurdles each faced en route to history: the clock, each other, and the forces they couldn’t control — race ranking scientists, bigotry, and hate.
Three Kings
Excerpt and photos from the book
About Me
Writing
Other books and articles