Chadwick, Florence
Swimming
b. Nov. 9, 1918, San Diego, CA
When Chadwick reached the shore at Dover, England, on August 8, 1950, after swimming the English Channel in a record 13 hours and 23 minutes, she said, "I feel fine. I am quite prepared to swim back."
She didn't do it right then, but a little more than a year later she was back in Dover waiting for a chance to swim the Channel from England to France, a much more difficult crossing because of adverse winds and tides. After eleven weeks of waiting for good weather conditions, she decided to start the swim in a heavy fog and against unfavorable winds.
She had to take medicine for sea-sickness, but 16 hours and 22 minutes after entering the water, she was on the French shore, shaking hands with the mayor of Sangatte. Chadwick was the first woman to swim the channel from England to France; she did it again on September 4, 1953, in 14 hours and 42 minutes and for a third time on October 12, 1955, in a remarkable 13 hours and 55 minutes.
Chadwick performed two other major long-distance swims. In 1952 she swam the 21 miles from Catalina Island to Palos Verdes, CA, in 13 hours, 47 minutes, and 32 seconds, breaking a record that had been set in 1927, and in 1953 she swam the Straits of Gibraltar in a record 5 hours and 6 minutes. In both cases, she broke records set by male swimmers.