Gertrude "Trudy" Ederle was a Record-setting Woman

At the age of 12 years and 298 days, Ederle was the youngest female to set a swimming record with a new best for the 880 yard freestyle. She went on to set nine world records in the sport of competitive swimming.

Ederle trained at the Women's Swimming Association. In the 1924 Summer Olympics, she took home a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay team and bronze medals for third place in the 100-meter and 400-meter freestyle races.

But Ederle set her sights on an even bigger accomplishment.

In 1925, she swam 21 miles from Lower Manhattan to Sandy Hook, New Jersey in seven hours. In that same year, she made her first attempt to swim the English Channel, but her first attempt failed.

Only five men before her were successful at swimming across the English Channel. Enrique Tiraboschi had made the best time with 16 hours and 33 minutes.

Ederle's crossing was not without drama. After her first failed attempt, she decided to try again the next year. She contracted with the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune for exclusivity of the story of being the first woman to successfully swim across the English Channel.

At the same time, other women swimmers such as Lillian Cannon, Clarabelle Barrett and Mille Gade, were also training for the crossing. Cannon was sponsored by the Baltimore Post which attempted to create a sporting rivalry between Ederle and Cannon.

Ederle began her journey in sixty-one degree water off Cape Gris-Nez in France at seven a.m. A tugboat carrying reporter Julie Hapman for the New York Daily News accompanied her. Hapman refused to allow any other reporters on the tugboat to protect her exclusivity of the coverage of the swim. The snubbed reporters hired another tugboat to follow. It was reported that this second tug often ran dangerously close to Ederle in the hopes she would accidentally touch the tug and be disqualified.

The weather for the day of her swim had originally been predicted as favorable. But shortly after midday, it began to rain, gently at first. Within a few hours, the rain became a storm and the water became rough. Spray slashed into her face and water currents kept pushing her back.

Her family and coach aboard the tug begged Ederle to come out of the water when she was only six miles from shore. With fierce determination, Ederle refused to stop and continued plunging headlong through the choppy water towards her destination.

After three more hours, the wind and rain began to ease and the tide turned.

Despite all the challenges she faced, Ederle climbed out of the water on a beach at Kingsdown, England at nine p.m. on August 6, 1926 setting another world record: 14 hours and 31 minutes. She was nineteen years old at the time.

"To get over that Channel was my biggest and only ambition in the world," she later said. "I just knew it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it."[1]

Ederle was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City when she returned home and also met President Coolidge. She attempted to begin an acting career by playing herself in the movie "Swim, Girl, Swim" (1927). She toured the vaudeville circuit with Billy Rose's Aquacade. Due to an incompetent manager, Ederle's acting career never took off.

In 1933, Ederle took a nasty spill on her apartment stairs and ended up bedridden for several years. She had recovered enough by 1939 to make an appearance at the New York World's Fair.

But another problem also plagued Ederle. She suffered from poor hearing since childhood after a bout with measles. Swimming, unfortunately, enhanced that damage and she was completely deaf by the 1940s. She then turned to teaching swimming to deaf children.

Ederle was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965.

She died on November 30, 2003 in New York at the age of 98.

[1] S/R Olympic Sports