Along the way, Daniels became Dayton’s most prolific Olympic Games medal winner.
Early life
Though much of his early life was spent in New York and his later life in California, Daniels was born in Dayton on March 24, 1885.
His parents, Thomas Porter Daniels and Alice Meldrum, were married in 1884 and lived in Dayton. Alice was the daughter of a dry goods store owner who had several shops, including Dayton Dry Goods. When the stores failed, the couple moved to New York.
Daniels eventually went to the Dwight Prep School in New York City. There he was a member of the track team, competing in the high jump and the mile run. He also was the captain of the basketball team.
According to a 1992 Dayton Daily News article, Daniels often told a story about how he became such a good swimmer. He had read the winning time of some 100-yard races held in New York City and wondered if he could match them. He measured the distance out at Stony Creek Ponds in the Adirondacks and thought he was racing at about the same time.
Training in those days was also not what it has become in modern times.
“I took a dozen lessons at a swimming pool in New York City,” Daniels once said. “My father, Thomas Daniels, used to think nothing of swimming half a mile out to sea and back when we vacationed on Long Island, and I thought I needed some instruction. But I was more interested in track and field.
“When I went back to the city, I entered a race at the New York Athletic Club and was soundly beaten by the captain of the Yale swimming team.”
He later realized his homemade course at the pond was only 90 yards. But the race had hooked him on competitive swimming.
Daniels is credited with inventing the American Crawl by introducing a modification of the Australian Crawl to use the whole leg and six kicks for every two-arm cycle. His new style became the predominant form for freestyle swimming.
The Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games started in Athens, Greece in 1896. The United States hosted the Games for the first time in 1904 as almost a sideshow for the St. Louis World’s Fair. Only 12 countries sent competitors due to the ongoing Russian-Japanese war.
During those 1904 Olympic Games, Daniels won five medals. At age 19, he became the first American to win an Olympic medal in swimming, a silver medal in the men’s 100-yard freestyle.
» Men’s 440 yard freestyle: Gold
» Men’s 220 yard freestyle: Gold
» Men’s 4 x 50 yard freestyle relay: Gold
» Men’s 100 yard freestyle: Silver
» Men’s 50 yard freestyle: Bronze
During the 1908 Olympic Games in London, Daniels won two medals.
» Men’s 100 meter freestyle: Gold
» Men’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay: Bronze
Daniels also won gold in the 100 meter freestyle at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. This competition is known as the 1906 Summer Olympics, however medals won are not officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
Other accomplishments
Daniels set 14 world records during a four-day period in 1905, and at that time he held every world freestyle record from 25 yards to one mile. He also set seven world records of various distances between 1907 and 1911 in three countries.
From 1904 until he retired in 1911, he won Amateur Athletic Union Championships 31 times.
Daniels became a squash and bridge champion at the New York Athletic Club.
As an amateur golfer he won the California State Seniors championship in 1946 and 1948.
Retirement
Before the 1912 Olympics, Daniels decided to retire, saying, “I have been doing speed swimming for nine years and that is long enough for anyone.”
Daniels and his wife, heiress Florence Goodyear, purchased 5,000 acres in the Adirondacks. On the land, he built Sabattis Park, which included his own 9-hole golf course.
According to a 2017 Sports Illustrated article, Daniels “was an early riser and made a ritual out of his morning workouts. He would swim two miles across Bear Pond (on his estate) and have a servant meet him with hot coffee and that day’s New York Tribune.”
An avid hunter, Daniels filled his estate with animal head trophies.
Daniels lived in Buffalo until 1953 and died in Carmel, California in 1973.
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