← Back to the front page

Tough Teddy and Old Hickory: America’s Most Badass Presidents

Khalid Elhassan December 4, 2024 14 min

Tough - An 1828 woodcut of the Andrew Jackson vs Charles Dickinson duel — An 1828 woodcut of the Andrew Jackson vs Charles Dickinson duel. Wikimedia

12. From Sickly Child to Health Nut

Tough - A young Teddy Roosevelt — A young Teddy Roosevelt. Harvard College Library

A born fighter, Teddy Roosevelt did not despair. Instead, he discovered a means to help keep down the asthma, and simultaneously keep up his spirits: vigorous exercise. When he was around eleven-years-old, Teddy traveled with his family to Europe, and as they hiked in the Alps, the sickly kid discovered that he could keep pace with his father. It felt great, and from then on, TR adopted a regimen of strenuous exercise and outdoors activities. He also took up boxing to learn how to fight, after he got bullied by two older boys on a camping trip.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.