The first. The best.

"Mahape a ale wala‘au." "Don’t talk, keep it in your heart." It was one of Duke Kahanamoku’s favorite sayings.

It was how he lived his life, in and out of the water.

The modern Olympic Games were in their infancy when Kahanamoku overcame racial prejudice, questions regarding his citizenship and the cold waters in Stockholm, Sweden, to break and rebreak the Olympic record in the 100-meter swim. The Games of the V Olympiad were the world’s introduction to the 21-year-old who went on to win four more swimming medals and one in water polo, medaling in all four of his Olympic appearances from 1912 to 1932.

Kahanamoku was Hawaii’s first Olympian. "Paoa," as his family and closest friends called him, is still regarded as the best.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS have not diminished the legacy of Kahanamoku, who died in 1968. It is still as golden as his first medal, coincidentally the last time that solid gold medals were awarded.

In the pre-World War I days, with Europe steadfastly holding onto its royal houses, Kahanamoku’s first name opened doors that normally would be closed to someone described in the newspapers of the day as "a bronze-skinned god." Many assumed that "Duke" was a title; Kahanamoku’s regal comportment and charm did little to contradict.

Though his lineage was not widely known outside of Hawaii, he was descended from kaukauali‘i (lower-ranking chiefs). It was Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop who christened Kahanamoku’s father "Duke" in honor of Prince Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, who was visiting Hawaii at the time of the elder Kahanamoku’s birth.

In 1912, Hawaii was 47 years away from becoming a U.S. state. The U.S. Olympic Committee filed numerous petitions before Kahanamoku was certified as an American citizen, competing from the Territory of Hawaii.

Given the sentiments of the day, it is of little surprise that one of Kahanamoku’s closest friends on his Olympic team was Jim Thorpe, a Native American born in what was then the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). Kahanamoku once related a conversation with Thorpe when aboard the SS Finland headed to Stockholm.

" ‘Jimmy, I’ve seen you run, jump, throw things and carry the ball. You do everything, so why don’t you swim, too? ‘ " Kahanamoku asked. "He just grinned at me with that big grin he had for everyone and said, ‘Duke, I saved that for you to take care of.’ "

Thorpe’s success in winning both the pentathlon and the inaugural decathlon somewhat overshadowed that of Kahanamoku, whose times in the 100 set, then reset the Olympic record and tied the world record; Kahanamoku was also on the 4×200 free relay that took silver in world-record time.

Both athletes so impressed Sweden’s King Gustaf that he personally called them to the royal victory stand to present them their gold medals and crown them with the laurel wreaths denoting Olympic champions. It was then, according to historical accounts, that Kahanamoku responded to Gustaf’s "Congratulations, Duke," with "Thank you, King."

The two left with gold medals and international recognition: Thorpe known as the "Greatest Athlete in the World" and Kahanamoku the "Fastest Man in the Water."

THE JOURNEY to the Olympic podium had begun 10 months earlier when Kahanamoku, weeks shy of his 21st birthday, dove into Honolulu Harbor during the first sanctioned Hawaiian Amateur Athletic Union championship meet and surfaced into history. He touched the finish-line rope that had been strung from a barge to a moorage between Piers 6 and 7 in 55.4 seconds, a shocking 4.6 seconds faster than the 100-meter world record held by two-time Olympic champion Charles Daniels.

The AAU refused to recognize the time, saying it must have been aided by a current. After Kahanamoku’s impressive showing in the Olympic Trials and Games, the organization acknowledged the feat.

World War I likely cost Kahanamoku more medals. But he was never far from the water, bringing surfing to the East Coast while there for swimming exhibitions, and teaching water lifesaving techniques to Red Cross Volunteers.

Kahanamoku continued this golden path in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, breaking his own world record in the 100 meters on his 30th birthday. It was his second record of the day; when the first final was run, two nullifications forced a re-swim, in which Kahanamoku set another mark, with Pua Kealoha second. He added another gold in the 4×200 relay, a team that included Kealoha.

IT WASN’T UNTIL 1924 in Paris that Kahanamoku yielded his "world’s fastest swimmer" title to Johnny Weissmuller, who later starred as Tarzan in movies. At the Piscine des Tourelles, Weissmuller set an Olympic record in 59.0 seconds, out-touching the Kahanamoku brothers: Duke second and younger brother Sam third.

If reports are to be believed, Sam Kahanamoku slowed at the end to allow his brother to finish ahead as a sign of respect.

That story is part of the mystique that surrounds Kahanamoku to this day. Last month, a mainland newspaper revisited June 14, 1925, when Kahanamoku used his surfboard to rescue eight fishermen from a capsized boat in the heavy surf off Newport Beach, Calif.

Seventeen others died, "but there surely would have been more if it hadn’t been for the most superhuman surfboard rescue act the world has ever seen," the Newport police chief said of Kahanamoku’s efforts.

There was one last Olympics for the man known internationally as the "father of surfing." At age 42, he earned a bronze as a member of the water polo team.

AS THE LATE Rev. Abraham Akaka said in 1968 at Kahanamoku’s funeral in Waikiki: "Duke Kahanamoku represented the alii, the nobility in the highest and truest sense … concern for others, humility in victory, courage in adversity, good sportsmanship in defeat."

Hawaii’s legacy in the Olympics got off to a golden start 100 years ago, with Kahanmoku’s size-13 feet leaving a wake in which dozens have successfully followed.