Gus Sundstrom

Early life Sundstrom was born on October 28, 1858 in Brooklyn, New York, to Mrs. and Mr. J.F. Sundstrom, a Scandinavian sea Captain. He attended public schools in Brooklyn, and began to swim at an early age. He participated in long distance races in New York City rivers and later Manhattan Harbor while competing for cash purses. Following his father's example, he set out to sea as part of his education, and sailed on ships that circumnavigated the globe more than once. A hearty lad in a rough world, he took up boxing while at sea as a youth. His own years as a swimming and water polo competitor spanned from 1885-1895, though he continued to swim well into his 60's.

Adopting the front crawl During his travels in his early years he was fabled to have swum a one-mile race in the Columbia River, against Big Red Fish, a Pacific Coast Indian. Sundstrom lost badly, but observed that the Indian swam with his arms recovering out of the water and with rapid thrashing legs, now called a flutter kick. The Indian's stroke and kicking technique were quite different from the breaststroke and sidestroke used by Sundstrom, and commonly used by American swimmers at the time. Sundstrom adopted the new stroke technique and tried to improve upon it, soon experiencing increasing success in competition. Manhattan Harbor area swims of varying distances are still performed today. A Rose Pitonof swim in Manhattan Harbor, which commemorates the 1910 Manhattan Harbor swim by a New York-based marathon swimmer of the same name, spans 17 miles, but with different starting and ending points. Marathon swimmer Diana Nyad was a record holder in 1975, of a longer 28-mile Manhattan Harbor swim, which was broken not long after.

New York Athletic Club When the New York Athletic Club was being constructed in Manhattan in 1885, Sundstrom was first hired to work the baths that February, and then served as their inaugural swimming instructor beginning in 1890. Greatly popularizing the sport, the championship water polo matches he coached, drew audiences that averaged 14,000, though spectators considered it a "rough sport". With his reputation growing as a result of his work as NYAC instructor, and his many wins as a local long distance swimmer, Sundstrom was selected to supervise swimming for the New York City Schools. In this position, he was reputed to have taught over 100,000 children to swim during his career.

Outstanding swimmers The Olympic swimmers Sundstrom coached at the New York Athletic Club included Charles Daniels an eight-time Olympic medalist, 1904 two-time Olympic Gold medalist Joe Ruddy and 1904 two-time Olympic gold medalist Leo "Bud" Goodwin. The world records and national titles of his championship swimmers could be partly attributed to Sundstrom's careful training techniques and his work refining and improving the front crawl stroke. Many New York area newspapers carried news of his passing, and many newspapers worldwide distributed by Ripley's Believe it or Not featured a description of a stunt he performed of swimming 75 yards underwater with a lit cigar in his mouth, and surfacing with the cigar still lit.

Honors He was elected to the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1988 and was admitted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame as a Pioneer member in 1995.

As part of an enduring legacy, in 1901, he authored the first manual on Water Polo as part of the Spaulding Sports Library.