A review by lilyaronovitz
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory by Julie Checkoway

3.0

I actually enjoyed this book a little more than I thought I would, and I was finding myself very interested in the story and the two main characters in the beginning of the book. I definitely thought the story was very inspiring, and had I not known it was based off a true story, I definitely would've thought that this story was a little unrealistic. I was amazed at how Sakamoto grew as a coach, and the way his knowledge of swimming and workouts evolved. The intensity of their workouts blew me away, and I was also really impressed at how much they knew about swimming way back then. I didn't know how advanced the olympics were, and thought the sport was much more basic in the 1940s. Towards the middle end, I felt like the story line got a little mixed up, a lot more characters were added in that I couldn't keep track of, the two main characters left the story, everything went downhill and I just wasn't enjoying the book anymore. It stayed that way through the rest of the book. This was a much different story than I expected it to be, in terms of where they started, and where the story went. I also don't think I would've enjoyed this book as much if I hadn't been a swimmer myself, because I wouldn't have been able to relate to the story, and I probably wouldn't have known as much of what is going on.