Uneuropean

This tribute piece was directly inspired by the introduction of what is commonly known as the
“freestyle stroke” into the sport of competitive swimming. This happened in 1844 when the
British Swimming Society had invited a group of celebrated Native Americans from the Ojibway
tribe to a pool in England, only two were selected as competitors, Flying Gull and Tobacco.
When they were signaled to start the Europeans had used their tame breaststroke while the
Native Americans had “thrashed the water violently, like sails of a windmill, and beat downward
with their feet, blowing with force and forming grotesque antics” (Weissmuller to Spitz),
spectators had dubbed their swimming style “Uneuropean”. Nonetheless, Flying Gull had swam
a distance of 130 feet in less than half a minute, and was the victor by 7 seconds twice. Around
40 years later it had been considered an official stroke as the “Front Crawl”, this has become the
most essential stroke in swimming today, yet this only hap