The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway
Reviewing publication The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story Of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids And Their Quest For Olympic Glory, By Julie Checkoway, nowadays, will not compel you to constantly buy in the establishment off-line. There is a great place to buy guide The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story Of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids And Their Quest For Olympic Glory, By Julie Checkoway by on-line. This internet site is the best website with lots numbers of book collections. As this The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story Of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids And Their Quest For Olympic Glory, By Julie Checkoway will certainly be in this book, all publications that you require will be right here, too. Merely hunt for the name or title of the book The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story Of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids And Their Quest For Olympic Glory, By Julie Checkoway You can discover exactly what you are hunting for.
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway
Best PDF Ebook Online The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway
For readers of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat comes the inspirational, untold story of impoverished children who transformed themselves into world-class swimmers. 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, were malnourished and barefoot and had no pool; they trained in the filthy irrigation ditches that snaked down from the mountains into the sugarcane fields. Their future was in those same fields, working alongside their parents in virtual slavery, known not by their names but by numbered tags that hung around their necks. Their teacher, Soichi Sakamoto, was an ordinary man whose swimming ability didn't extend much beyond treading water. In spite of everything, including the virulent anti-Japanese sentiment of the late 1930s, in 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 a world war and the cancellation of the 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.
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway- Amazon Sales Rank: #741010 in Books
- Published on: 2015-11-24
- Released on: 2015-11-24
- Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 14
- Dimensions: 5.75" h x 1.63" w x 5.25" l,
- Running time: 900 minutes
- Binding: Audio CD
Review "A brightly told story of the triumph of underdogs... exuberant, well-researched...tense, vivid, and inspiring."―Kirkus Reviews"If the basis for the book doesn't sound amazing enough, 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...it is evident that Checkoway's ability to set a scene is uncanny and accomplished...Depicting determination, discrimination, hope, anguish, hard work, and hard choices, Checkoway has created a sports history that is singular in its own right, and a fitting testament to the over 200 youths who swam for many reasons toward one goal: 'Olympics First! Olympics Always.'"―Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Remarkable real-life account...about as underdog as it gets."―Boston Globe"An inspiring true tale of grit and determination... Checkoway skillfully weaves vivid scenes into a larger narrative with a varied cast of characters to create a stirring, though exhaustive, account ...Pair this with The Boys in the Boat."―Booklist"This story of one (at first) seemingly unremarkable man and his effect on camp children and the world of swimming is both inconceivable and dazzling. You won't want to miss it."―Book Reporter"This captivating nonfiction, featuring engaging individuals and portraying a tumultuous time in history, chronicles Hawaii's second golden age of swimming. Sports and history enthusiasts will enjoy this title as much as book clubs and general readers."―Library Journal"Checkoway carefully weaves together facts into a sweeping historical tapestry."―The Salt Lake Tribune"Checkoway's story of youthful perseverance will earn a place on the shelf with The Boys in the Boat."―The National Book Review"Save the story she has, through exhaustive research and sparkling prose."―BookPage"[A] reverent tale...Through meticulous research, Checkoway brings crisp focus to a fuzzy time in American history...The book carries hints of The Boys in the Boat...Checkoway stays true to her salvage mission. She unearths characters flawed and fetching and shines an unflinching light on race and class...glorious storytelling and a triumphant, unpredictable finish."―Minneapolis Star Tribune"This story of one (at first) seemingly unremarkable man and his effect on camp children and the world of swimming is both inconceivable and dazzling. You won't want to miss it."―Book Reporter"A good and graceful writer."―Honolulu Magazine"A made-for-the-screen story."―Outside Magazine"Exceptionally well-researched and well-written."―ESPN.com"A wild, improbable story that makes for popular Hollywood movies but rarely happens in real life. But this story's real."―Maui Time"This true story is entertaining and absorbing and good for the soul."―Sunset Magazine"A classic underdog story...Had [Checkoway] not written this book, their exact story might have never been told, but instead, American swimming's most fascinating chapter gets the shine it deserves."―Deadspin"Lively, at times history reading more dramatic than fiction...surprises wait in both the pool and in the story of these remarkable characters."―Petoskey News
About the Author Julie Checkoway is an author and documentary filmmaker. She graduated from Harvard College, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts individual artist grant and fellowships at writers' colonies, including Yaddo. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Salt Lake Tribune, and Huffington Post.
Where to Download The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway
Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful. ... about four months to post my five stars and great review of Julie Checkoway's book since my independent bookseller ... By Caroline I've been waiting about four months to post my five stars and great review of Julie Checkoway's book since my independent bookseller cousins unloaded it on me in NYC after they attended book convention here in June--this rather than having to drag all their free books back with them to New Orleans, La. (Poor cousins!) Anyway, I definitely won on this one. If I could have read this book in one night, I would have. My deterrent to one-night reading was that some portions/descriptions were so good that I had to read them over at least once. I also re-read my favorite portions several times after I finished the book. Although I thought that some portions should have moved more quickly than they did (specifically the first 100 or so pages describing the children's poverty-stricken life conditions and the World War II conditions the boys had to endure while fighting,) I thought the rest of the book more than made up for it. On a personal note, one of the boys in the Three-Year Swim Club was the reason my college's rival swim team had a reputation for so many years as unbeatable! Checkoway's research was daunting and so thorough it will make your eyes "swim" if you read the chapter where she details it. Ever since I read this book in late June, I have thought that it would be a best seller and a major motion picture. If I'm wrong so be it. But if you read it, you may understand why I think so many people will be drawn to it!
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful. A Beautifully Told Story about conquering poverty and discrimination through achievement! By Amazon Customer Julie Checkoway brings to life one of the most remarkable “LOST” stories in athletic, Olympic and swimming history. She incorporates a fascinating history of Hawaii, Japan and the Olympics to help tell the story of a Hall of Fame swimming coach who dreamed of making champions from the children of poverty-stricken, uneducated Japanese and Philippine- American sugar cane cutters on the island of Maui, in the Hawaiian islands. The coach was Soichi Sakamoto, a regular school teacher who had no background in athletics, let alone swimming, is the true-life hero. Fueled by the success of Japanese swimmers at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Sakamoto started teaching children swimming in the dirty, muddy sugar cane-plantation irrigation ditches. Some of his swimmers did so well that he came to believe, by 1937, that some of these kids could be Olympic Champions. Thus came the idea for the “Three Year Swim Club.” It was a challenge to the kids he had been training: if they worked hard, didn’t smoke, drink or gamble, obeyed their parents and coach, in three years, some would represent the United States, in the home of their ancestors, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, in 1940. It is both an inspirational and emotional story - against all odds - filled with tragedies and triumphs and one that changed the world of swimming for ever. The story has been likened to Unbroken and Boys on the Boat. I would add Seabiscuit to that list (as the swimmers from Maui often had bigger headlines in the nation's papers than the horse). This story will be a fantastic new exhibit at the International Swimming Hall of Fame and could make a great movie.I recommend the audible.com version, as read by Alex Chadwick, but you’ll also want the book for its photos.I also really enjoyed her presentation in San Francisco, along with two-time Olympian Steve Clark (see photo). A great job of research and story telling.Bruce WigoPresident / International Swimming Hall of Fame
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Hawaiian history at its best with lots of Aloha! By Jacqui Wittmeyer Awe-inspiring characters against all odds achieve extraordinary feats in all aspects of life, impeccably researched and well written--what more can one ask for in this extraordinary book. Thank you Julie Checkoway for so thoughtfully and skillfully telling us this unforgettable story that otherwise very well would have faded into history. I found myself thinking about excerpts long after I had left the page and throughout the day. Coach Soichi Sakamoto saw promise and potential in what others, at first glance, would dismiss as hopeless; both in the tenacious, embolden kids that he trained, as well as with the tools he resurrected (that others had discarded as junk) that he resourcefully and ingeniously engineered as cross-training tools. He is a true American hero, far ahead of his time. All members of The Three Year Swim Club should be properly recognized and commended for their truly remarkable accomplishments, both in and out of the water. For success and achievements in life are not simply measured by the end goal, but how far and swiftly one swims upstream through the overwhelming current they are up against.
See all 70 customer reviews... The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie CheckowayThe Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway PDF
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway iBooks
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway ePub
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway rtf
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway AZW
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway Kindle
