Ederle, Gertrude
Swimming
b. Oct. 23, 1906, New York, NY
Two months before her thirteenth birthday, Ederle set a world record in the 880-yard freestyle swim. She won the U. S. outdoor 440-yard freestyle in 1922 and 1923, the 880-yard freestyle in 1923 and 1924, and the indoor 220-yard freestyle in 1923. At the 1924 Olympics she won a bronze medal in the 100-meter free style and swam a leg on the gold-medal 4 by 100-meter relay team.
But distance swimming was her real strength. The first time she ever competed at a distance greater than 220 yards, she won the 1921 J. P. Day Cup for a 3-mile race in New York Bay, beating a field of fifty top distance swimmers.
Ederle became a professional swimmer in 1925. A year later, she announced her plan to become the first woman, and only the sixth person, to swim the English Channel. The London Daily News thundered: "Even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance, they must remain forever the weaker sex."
Shortly after 7 a.m. on August 6, 1926, Ederle entered the water on the French shore. Fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes later, she arrived in England. It was the fastest channel swim ever by more than two hours, breaking the record set by a man. Her time was surpassed later that year, but it remained a record for women until 1964.
Ederle became a national hero. She was welcomed home by a ticker-tape parade in New York City that was attended by an estimated two million people. She toured the vaudeville circuit, performing in a huge collapsible swimming tank, for several years.
But she paid a price for her fame. Ederle became deaf because of water damage to her eardrums during the channel swim, she suffered a nervous breakdown in 1928, and she had to wear a cast for more than four years because of a back injury. But she recovered by 1933 and became a swimming instructor for deaf children.
Paul Gallico wrote of Ederle, "She was the demonstration of those times that courage, training, willpower and indomitable spirit comprise the secret weapon against seemingly unconquerable obstacles. . . but she went through hell."