I was just telling my mom how sometimes I will cover topics that don’t really interest me because they are of interest to my readers.  Sports happens to be one of those topics.  So I made up my mind to cover a sports history feature, and this one actually fascinates me (and would my daughter as well)!  On this date in 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English channel.

She was the daughter of German immigrants, and she was the third of six children.  She trained at the Women’s Swimming Association, and she was instrumental in creating the swimming stroke called the “American crawl.”  She won a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics, and she set a new world record with her team for the women’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay.  Unfortunately, she failed to win three gold medals which was considered her life’s greatest disappointment.

She and another woman were sponsored by the Women’s Swimming Association to try to swim the English Channel, but she was the only one who went.  Her first attempt in 1925 ended with a disqualification.  The New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune sponsored her second attempt.  Only five men had successfully swum the Channel before her.  She actually beat the record set by these previous swimmers with a time of 14 hours and 31 minutes.  She wore a 2-piece bathing suit, swim goggles, a swim cap, and coated her body with lanolin to protect her from the jellyfish and the cold temperatures.

By the 1940’s, she was almost completely deaf, and she spent her time teaching deaf children to swim.  She never married, and she died at the age of 98 in 2003.

A quote that puts into context her accomplishments would be this one: “People said women couldn’t swim the Channel but I proved they could.”  I would say she did well proving those people wrong!

For more info:

http://famousdaily.com/history/gertrude-ederle-first-woman-swim-english-channel.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Ederle

http://www.biography.com/people/gertrude-ederle-9284131

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