the 1932 Winter Olympics and the fastest men in the world
In the 1930's, as the world slid towards war, speed was all the rage. Bobsledding, the fastest, most thrilling sport of the era, was the must-see event at the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. The competition required exceptional skill and extraordinary courage because the course was so lethal. The American team was composed of a ragtag lot---Clifford Gray,a notorious playboy and ex-movie star; Eddie Eagan, a heavyweight boxing champion, scholar, and lawyer; Jay O'Brien, a handsome Gatsby-ish gambler and rogue; and Billy Fiske, a boy just barely out of his teens, who would quickly become the star of the sport. They faced fierce competition from the very same German athletes they would be fighting against in World War II only a few years later. Billy Fiske joined the British Royal Air Force and fought during the Battle of Britain and became the first American fighter pilot killed in the war.
