In the 1930s, as the world hurtled toward war, speed was all the rage. Bobsledding, the fastest and most thrilling way to travel on land had become a sensation. Exciting, and brutally dangerous, it was the must-see event of the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. The American team was Jay O'Brien, the high-society playboy; Tippy Grey, a scandal-prone Hollywood has-been; Eddie Eagan, world champion heavyweight boxer and Rhodes Scholar; and Billy Fiske, the true heart of the team, despite being barely out of his teens. The nation was gripped by the story of these four men, their battle against jealous locals, treacherous US officials, and the very same German athletes they would be fighting against in the war only a few short years later. Billy, in fact, went on to talk his way into the Royal Air Force, despite their Brits-only policy, and was there to fight the Nazis during the Battle of Britain. King of speed to the end, he would become the first American fighter pilot killed in WWII.