Women in Sport: Gertrude Ederle

By swimming. 

Born in New York in 1905, to a butcher, she soon discovered a love affair with the waters, and began training, at the age of 12, with the Women's Swimming Association. The WSA were heavily involved with the suffrage movement and succeeded in getting women to compete at the Olympics. That same year she broke a World Record in the 880 yard freestyle, and was the youngest swimmer to hold a record. From 1921 to 1929 she held twenty-nine National and World records, plus won a gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Yes, she was a bit of a natural when it came to swimming. 

It wasn't until, after turning professional, that she attempted the English Channel in 1925. The WSA sponsored both her and another, Helen Wainright, but unfortunately the latter was forced to cancel due to an injury. Ederle, however, decided to go ahead with Jacob Wolffe, her trainer; he had previously attempted it no less than twenty-two times without success. 

Unfortunately her first try, on the 18th of August, saw her disqualified when Wolffe ordered her to be assisted at one point during the swim despite her protestations at the time. Ederle never forgave him for this, and accused him of not wanting her to succeed at something he himself had failed to do. Conflicting reports do however point at 'the no touching rule' which was supposedly accidentally broken (sustenance was allowed to be passed to her from the boat following her). The doubts that a woman could achieve such an endeavour began to be heard. 

Returning back to New York she found a new coach in Bill Burgess - someone who had accomplished the feat almost fifteen years prior - and even procured sponsorship from the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune. Almost one year later on the 6th of August wearing a very controversial two-piece bathing suit, after setting off from Cap Gris-Nez, she arrived in Kent, England, just shy of two hours faster than any person had ever recorded. 

Her record time lasted until 1950, and approximately two million people lined the streets of Manhattan for her parade. 

Unfortunately in 1933, after falling down the stairs, she suffered a spine injury, and was bedridden for years. And a person with a severe hearing impairment, she went on to teach deaf children how to swim. 

In 1965 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, the Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003. The Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center, in the upper-west side of Manhattan, opened in 2013, ten years after her death at the age of 98. 

She had books, plays, and movies made about her - one such film, Swim Girl Swim, even saw her play herself. 

Such was her legacy that the next four successful attempts to swim the English Channel were all performed by women.