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In the early 1920’s, Adolph Kiefer’s father would take Adolph and his brothers swimming after church every Sunday to teach them the importance of knowing how to swim. But it was on Sister’s Lake, Michigan, where at the age of ten Adolph began to reveal the early signs of his exceptional swimming ability.
He could swim by himself across the lake and back -- frightening his parents, and at the same time, exercising the independent character of the Olympic champion he would become.
Back in Chicago at the Wilson Avenue YMCA, Adolph participated in the Y's famed Gold Medallion swimming contest where he swam the mile event. Though he was four years younger than all the other swimmers, it was at that venue where he received his first instruction from established swimmers. The following school year, he entered Von Steuben Junior High School on the north side of Chicago, a school that had indoor swimming facilities matched with a coach and an organized team. |
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