Fact of the Day
1998-08-05

First American Swimmer to Break a World Record
On Saturday, January 13th, 1906,Charles M. Daniels, swimming in the New York Athletic Club's 25 yard pool, became the first American swimmer to set a world record at a "standard distance", when on the same evening, he twice broke the world 100 yard record of 58.0 seconds held by the Australian, Dick Cavill. In his first swim Daniels touched in 57.6 seconds, a time that also beat the American mark of 61.4 seconds made by Harry Le Moyne. In his first swim he used the old style trudgen stroke throughout. One observer said: "The fact that he made the record without using the crawl stroke was in itself remarkable."