The Three-Year Swim Club
Published by Grand Central Publishing
The New York Times–bestselling “remarkable real-life account” of impoverished children who became world-class swimmers is “about as underdog as it gets” (Boston Globe).
In 1937, a schoolteacher on the island of Maui challenged a group of poverty-stricken sugar plantation kids to swim upstream against the current of their circumstance. The goal? To become Olympians.
They faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The children were Japanese-American and were malnourished and barefoot. They had no pool; they trained in the filthy irrigation ditches that snaked down from the mountains into the sugarcane fields. Their teacher, Soichi Sakamoto, was an ordinary man whose swimming ability didn’t extend much beyond treading water.
In spite of everything, their first year the children outraced Olympic athletes twice their size; in their second year, they were national and international champs, shattering American and world records and making headlines from L.A. to Nazi Germany. In their third year, they’d be declared the greatest swimmers in the world. But they’d also face their greatest obstacle: the dawning of World War II and the cancellation of the Olympic Games. Still, on the battlefield, they’d become the 20th century’s most celebrated heroes, and in 1948, they’d have one last chance for Olympic glory.
They were the Three-Year Swim Club. This is their story.
“A brightly told story of the triumph of underdogs . . . inspiring.” —Kirkus Reviews
“How the story unfolds—Japan vying for the Olympic games, Pearl Harbor being bombed, WWII changing the world forever—allows the story and characters to evolve in uplifting and heartbreaking ways.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[A] reverent tale. . . . glorious storytelling and a triumphant, unpredictable finish.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
In 1937, a schoolteacher on the island of Maui challenged a group of poverty-stricken sugar plantation kids to swim upstream against the current of their circumstance. The goal? To become Olympians.
They faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The children were Japanese-American and were malnourished and barefoot. They had no pool; they trained in the filthy irrigation ditches that snaked down from the mountains into the sugarcane fields. Their teacher, Soichi Sakamoto, was an ordinary man whose swimming ability didn’t extend much beyond treading water.
In spite of everything, their first year the children outraced Olympic athletes twice their size; in their second year, they were national and international champs, shattering American and world records and making headlines from L.A. to Nazi Germany. In their third year, they’d be declared the greatest swimmers in the world. But they’d also face their greatest obstacle: the dawning of World War II and the cancellation of the Olympic Games. Still, on the battlefield, they’d become the 20th century’s most celebrated heroes, and in 1948, they’d have one last chance for Olympic glory.
They were the Three-Year Swim Club. This is their story.
“A brightly told story of the triumph of underdogs . . . inspiring.” —Kirkus Reviews
“How the story unfolds—Japan vying for the Olympic games, Pearl Harbor being bombed, WWII changing the world forever—allows the story and characters to evolve in uplifting and heartbreaking ways.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[A] reverent tale. . . . glorious storytelling and a triumphant, unpredictable finish.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
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