Daniels, Charles M.
Swimming
b. March 24, 1885
d. Aug. 8, 1973
One of the most important figures in the early history of competitive swimming, Daniels studied the new "Australian crawl" after it had been introduced to the United States in 1903. In the crawl, swimmers used a hand-over-hand stroke with a flutter kick, the legs moving up and down, alternately, in the water.
Daniels improved the stroke by emphasizing use of the full leg, from the hips down, and synchronizing the kick with the arm action, using six kicks per two-arm cycle. The "American crawl," as the new stroke became known, is still used by all freestyle swimmers, with some minor modifications.
He won eight Olympic medals, including five golds. He was the 1904 Olympic champion in the 220- and 440-yard freestyles and also swam on the champion 4 by 50-yard freestyle relay team. He won the Olympic 100-meter freestyle in 1906 and 1908, was the silver medalist in the 1908 100-meter, and won bronze medals in the 50-yard freestyle in 1904 and as a member of 4 by 200-meter relay team in 1908.
From 1904 through 1911, Daniels won thirty-one AAU national championships and at one time he held the world records at every distance from 25 yards to 1 mile. In 1905, he set 14 world records in one four-day period.