Gertrude Ederle

Gertrude Ederle

Gertrude "Trudy" Ederle was a pioneer in women's swimming. She was born on October 23, 1906. She began to swim at the age of eight. Her father taught her to swim at the family summer cottage in Highlands, New Jersey. She lived in and grew up in New York City and at the age of 13, she joined the New York Women's Swimming Association. She won her first big race when she was fifteen years old and began to get a good sized collection of first place trophies.

From 1921 to 1925, Ederle set 29 United States and world records for swimming

races ranging from the 50-yard to the half-mile race. In the 1924 Summer Olympic

Games, she won a gold medal as a member of the championship U.S. 400-meter

freestyle relay team. She also won bronze medals for finishing third in the

100-meter and 400-meter freestyle races.

With funding from the Women's Swimming Association, Gertrude Ederle first attempted to swim the English Channel on August 18, 1925. Eight hours and forty-six minutes in the water, with only six miles to go, a wave engulfed her, and she had to stop to spit out the salt water. Her trainer thought that she was collapsing and called to a man swimming alongside her to grab her. He did, and therefore disqualified her. Although Ederle said, "I could have gone on," there was no fame in defeat.

Many men and some women had tried to swim the English Channel, but the passage proved to be too severe. The existence of crosscurrents, heavy tides, and choppy waves made the English Channel a treacherous body of water. Until 1926, only five men had successfully made the swim. Of the five fastest times recorded, Enrique Tiraboschi of Argentina held the first position with the time of sixteen hours and thirty-three minutes.

Ederle's second attempt to swim the Channel would require funding, and the Women's Swimming Association simply did not have adequate resources to sponsor her swim. After learning of Ederle's situation, a newspaper publisher, agreed to provide the necessary funds, knowing that if Ederle was successful, he would have the exclusive story and the lead on every other newspaper in the country. Signing the contract for her expenses and a modest salary was something Trudy would have to give serious consideration. Once she signed the contract she would be upgraded to a professional status, and therefore, ineligible to participate in future amateur competition. With determination on her side, Ederle signed the contract.

Accompanied by her father, her sister Margaret, and her trainer, Thomas W. Burgess in a tug boat, Gertrude Ederle once again attempted to swim the English Channel. With a promise from her father that she would not be pulled out of the water unless she asked, Ederle began her swim at 7:08 A.M. on the morning of August 6, 1926. The odds were three-to-one that she