The Watermen

The Birth of American Swimming and One Young Man's Fight to Capture Olympic Gold

By: Michael Loynd

Narrated by: Will Damron

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

The feel-good underdog story of the first American swimmer to win Olympic gold, set against the turbulent rebirth of the modern Games, that “bring[s] to life an inspiring figure and illuminate[s] an overlooked chapter in America’s sports history” (The Wall Street Journal)

“Once or twice in a decade, one of these stories . . . like Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken [or] Daniel Brown’s The Boys in the Boat . . . captures the imagination of the public. . . . Add The Watermen by Michael Loynd to this illustrious list.”—Swimming World

Winner of the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s Paragon Award and the Buck Dawson Authors Award

In the early twentieth century, few Americans knew how to swim, and swimming as a competitive sport 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 scrawny teenager suffered from extreme anxiety thanks to 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 that could rival the British Empire’s seventy-year domination of the sport.

Interwoven with the story of Charles’s efforts to overcome his family’s disgrace is the compelling history of the struggle to establish the modern Olympics in an era when competitive sports were still in their infancy. When the powerful British Empire finally legitimized the Games by hosting the fourth Olympiad in 1908, Charles’s hard-fought rise climaxed in a gold-medal race where British judges prepared a trap to ensure the American upstart’s defeat.

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 of a young man’s determination to excel.

©2022 Michael Loynd (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“For fans of the human stories of determination and personal triumph that emerge from each Olympic Games, The Watermen is essential.”—St. Louis Magazine

“This is a book about a revolutionary time in the sport of swimming and would make for an inspiring beach read.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Loynd combines Daniels’ life with a fascinating history of the early Olympic games and an America that gained interest in swimming.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Wonderful story

Great narrative well tuned to the competitive swimming world mindset set against an intriguing social background.

Wonderful historical story

As swimmer this story of the birth of swimming was so wonderful and very entertaining

It threw me in the deep end

Loved it, I hope you drink it in...bath in the multi dimensions of the story...while watching the evolution of a great sport and the Olympics...Michael Loynd...thank you for this gift!

A fine distance of a book

The Watermen moves slowly but like water, fills its space fully.

The narrator gently submerges the listener into the complete, complex social, political, and economical context of the late 19th and early 20th century in order to more fully understand the evolution of Olympic sports, history and of course competitive swimming.

I loved this book so much because I love history, and swimming. As a former NCAA swimmer, consider this book like swimming an aerobic distance set or open water jaunt. If you’re a fan of details and history: enjoy. If you’re more of an action-action-action listener, you might not like this as much as I did.

PS. I would love to have another epilogue give homage to Michael Phelps.

Great read for all swimming fans!

Great story! Wonderful performance!! Very interesting and informative, a must read for all fans of swimming

An American grit and success story

Very interesting story of the evolution of American swimming, the Olympics, international
Swimming and how grit and focus can overcome many obstacles.

A Michael Phelps story looong before Michael Phelps.