A screenshot of Google Doodle marking Duke Kahanamoku's Birth Anniversary
Today's Google Doodle is a dedication to Hawaiian-American competition swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku. He was a five-time Olympic medalist in swimming.
He was also an actor, lawman, beach volleyball player, and businessman credited with spreading the sport of surfing.
Kahanamoku had qualified for the US Olympic swimming team in 1912. At the Summer Olympics in Stockholm that year, he won a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle, and a silver medal in the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay.
He finished the 100 meters with a silver medal during the 1924 Olympics in Paris. At age 34, this was Kahanamoku's last Olympic medal. He also was an alternate for the US water polo team at the 1932 Summer Olympics.
Between Olympic competitions, and after retiring from the Olympics, Kahanamoku traveled internationally to give swimming exhibitions. It was during this period that he popularized the sport of surfing, previously known only in Hawaii, by incorporating surfing exhibitions into these visits as well.
While living in Newport Beach, California on June 14, 1925, Kahanamoku had rescued eight men from a fishing vessel that had capsized in heavy surf while attempting to enter the city's harbor.
Kahanamoku's name is also used by Duke's Canoe Club & Barefoot Bar, a beachfront bar and restaurant in the Outrigger Waikiki On The Beach Hotel. There is a chain of restaurants named after him in California and Hawaii called Duke's. A bronze statue at Waikiki beach in Honolulu honors his memory Kahanamoku died of a heart attack on January 22, 1968 at the age of 77.