Charles DANIELS

Charlie Daniels was a major influence on the development of American swimming. He perfected the Australian crawl, changing it slightly, adding a six-beat kick, to be renamed the American crawl, and using it to win a record 31 AAU individual championships. When he retired from swimming in 1911, he had won 53 national titles, and won over 300 races. He set world freestyle records at every distance from 25y to one mile and in 1905, he posted 14 world records within a period of four days. His tally of eight Olympic medals was not bettered until Mark Spitz among American swimmers. In addition to his outstanding abilities in the pool, Daniels was also the bridge and squash champion of the New York AC and later became a top amateur golfer.