Gertrude Caroline Ederle (October 23, 1906 – November 30, 2003) was an American competition
swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
. Among other nicknames, the press sometimes called her "
Queen of the Waves
Queen of the Waves is a French Marian hymn (author unknown) sung by French fishermen seeking protection from storms.
In the United States, it became well known as a result of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. The nuns of the St. Mary's Orphan as ...
".
[
]
Early years
Gertrude Ederle was born on October 23, 1906, in Manhattan, New York City. She was the third of six children and the daughter of German immigrants, Gertrude Anna Haberstroh and Henry Ederle. According to a biography of Ederle, ''America's Girl'', her father ran a butcher shop on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Her father taught her to swim in Highlands, New Jersey
:''See also New York–New Jersey Highlands for the northwestern part of the state.''
Highlands is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, its population was 5,005, , where the family owned a summer cottage.
Amateur career
Ederle trained at the Women's Swimming Association (WSA), which produced such competitors as Ethelda Bleibtrey
Ethelda Marguerite Bleibtrey (February 27, 1902 – May 6, 1978), also known by her married name Ethelda Schlatke, was an American competition swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder in multiple events.
Bleibtr ...
, Charlotte Boyle, Helen Wainwright
Helen E. Wainwright (March 15, 1906 – October 11, 1965), also known by her married name Helen Stelling, was a competition diver and swimmer who represented the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics and 1924 Summer Olympics. She remains th ...
, Aileen Riggin
Aileen Muriel Riggin (May 2, 1906 – October 17, 2002), also known by her married name Aileen Soule (also Aileen Riggin Soule), was an American competition swimmer and diver. She was Olympic champion in springboard diving in 1920 and U.S. nat ...
, Eleanor Holm
Eleanor G. Holm (December 6, 1913 – January 31, 2004) was an American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. An Olympian in 1928 and 1932, she was expelled from the 1936 Summer Olympics team by Avery Brundage under controversial circu ...
and Esther Williams. Her yearly dues of $3 allowed her to swim at the tiny Manhattan indoor pool. But, according to ''America's Girl'', "the WSA was already the center of competitive swimming, a sport that was becoming increasingly popular with the evolution of a bathing suit that made it easier to get through the water." The director, Charlotte "Eppy" Epstein, had already urged the AAU to endorse women's swimming as a sport in 1917 and in 1919 pressured the AAU to "allow swimmers to remove their stockings for competition as long as they quickly put on a robe once they got out of the water."
That wasn't the only advantage of belonging to the WSA. The American crawl, a variation of the Australian crawl, was developed at the WSA by Louis Handley
Louis de Breda Handley or Luigi de Breda (February 14, 1874 – December 28, 1956) was an Italian-born American freestyle swimmer and water polo player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.
He was the son of the American sculptor Francis ...
. According to ''America's Girl'', "Handley thought the Australian crawl, in which swimmers did three kicks and then turned on their side to take a breath and do a scissors kick, could be improved ... The finished product – and its eight-beat variation, which Ederle would use – became the American crawl, and Handley was its proud father." Along with Handley, Epstein made New York female swimmers a force to be reckoned with. Ederle joined the club when she was only twelve. The same year, she set her first world record in the 880-yard freestyle, becoming the youngest world record holder in swimming. She set eight more world records after that, seven of them in 1922 at Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...
.[ In total, Ederle held 29 US national and world records from 1921 until 1925.]
At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Ederle won a gold medal as a member of the first-place U.S. team in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay. Together with her American relay teammates Euphrasia Donnelly
Euphrasia Louise "Fraze" Donnelly (June 6, 1905 – May 20, 1963) was an American competition swimming (sport), swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. Donnelly represented the United States at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Pari ...
, Ethel Lackie and Mariechen Wehselau, she set a new world record of 4:58.8 in the event final. Individually, she received bronze medals for finishing third in the women's 100-meter freestyle and women's 400-meter freestyle races.[Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes]
Gertrude Ederle
. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
Ederle had been favored to win a gold in all three events and "would later say her failure to win three golds in the games was the biggest disappointment of her career." Still, she was proud to have been a part of the American team that brought home 99 medals from the Paris Olympics. It was an illustrious Olympic team – swimmer Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller (born Johann Peter Weißmüller; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was an American Olympic swimmer, water polo player and actor. He was known for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. H ...
, oarsman Benjamin Spock
Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician and left-wing political activist whose book '' Baby and Child Care'' (1946) is one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century, selling 500,000 copies ...
, tennis player Helen Wills
Helen Newington Wills (October 6, 1905 – January 1, 1998), also known by her married names Helen Wills Moody and Helen Wills Roark, was an American tennis player. She won 31 Grand Slam tournament titles (singles, doubles, and mixed doubles) d ...
, and long-jumper DeHart Hubbard
William DeHart Hubbard (November 25, 1903 – June 23, 1976) was a track and field athlete who was the first African American to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event: the running long jump at the 1924 Paris Summer games.
He s ...
, who, according to ''America's Girl'', was "the first black man to win an individual gold". The U.S. Olympic team had its own ticker-tape parade
A ticker-tape parade is a parade event held in an urban setting, characterized by large amounts of shredded paper thrown onto the parade route from the surrounding buildings, creating a celebratory flurry of paper. Originally, actual ticker tap ...
in 1924.
Professional career
In 1925, Ederle turned professional. The same year she swam the 22 miles from Battery Park
The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to ...
to Sandy Hook
Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States.
The barrier spit, approximately in length and varying from wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern ...
in 7 hours and 11 minutes, a record time which stood for 81 years before being broken by Australian swimmer Tammy van Wisse
Tammy van Wisse (born 23 July 1968 in Melbourne, Victoria) is a long-distance swimmer from Australia. 1990 she won the Lake Zurich Swim. As a marathon swimmer she swam the Murray River in 2001, a distance of 2,438 kilometres and the English C ...
. Ederle's nephew Bob later described his aunt's swim as a "midnight frolic" and a "warm-up" for her later swim across the English Channel.
The Women's Swimming Association sponsored Helen Wainwright and Ederle for an attempt at swimming the Channel. Helen Wainwright pulled out at the last minute because of an injury, so Ederle decided to go to France on her own. She trained with Jabez Wolffe
Jabez Wolffe (19 November 1876 - 22 October 1943) attempted to swim the English Channel from 1906 to 1914 in 21 attempts.
Biography
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 19 November 1876 as Jacob Abraham Wolffe, he was generally known by the first name Ja ...
, a swimmer who had attempted to swim the Channel 22 times. During the training, Wolffe continually tried to slow her pace, saying that she would never last at that speed. The training with Wolffe did not go well. In her first attempt at the Channel on August 18, 1925, she was disqualified when Wolffe ordered another swimmer (who was keeping her company in the water), Ishak Helmy, to recover her from the water. According to her and other witnesses, she was not "drowning" but resting, floating face-down. She bitterly disagreed with Wolffe's decision. Wolffe had previously commented that women may not be capable of swimming the Channel and it was speculated that he did not want Ederle to succeed.
Her successful Channel swim – this time training with coach Bill Burgess
Thomas William Burgess (15 June 1872 – 2 July 1950) was the second person to successfully complete a swim of the English Channel after Matthew Webb. He performed the feat on 6 September 1911, on his 16th attempt.Staff"The Channel Swim: Burges ...
who had successfully swum the Channel in 1911 – began approximately one year later at Cape Gris-Nez
Cap Gris-Nez (literally "cape grey nose"; ) is a cape on the Côte d'Opale in the Pas-de-Calais ''département'' in northern France.
The 'Cliffs of the Cape' is the closest point of France to England – from their English counterparts at ...
in France at 07:08 on the morning of August 6, 1926. She came ashore at Kingsdown, Kent, 14 hours and 34 minutes later. Her record stood until Florence Chadwick
Florence May Chadwick (November 9, 1918 – March 15, 1995) was an American swimmer known for long-distance open water swimming. She was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, setting a time record each time. She was als ...
swam the Channel in 1950 in 13 hours and 23 minutes. Ederle used motorcycle goggles to protect her eyes from salty water, as did Burgess in 1911. However, while Burgess swam breaststroke, she used crawl, and therefore had her goggles sealed with paraffin Paraffin may refer to:
Substances
* Paraffin wax, a white or colorless soft solid that is used as a lubricant and for other applications
* Liquid paraffin (drug), a very highly refined mineral oil used in cosmetics and for medical purposes
* Alkan ...
to render them water tight.
Ederle possessed a contract from both the '' New York Daily News'' and ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' when she attempted the Channel swim a second time. The money she received paid her expenses and provided her with a modest salary. It also gave her a bonus in exchange for exclusive rights to her personal story. The ''Daily News'' and the ''Chicago Tribune'' got the jump on every other newspaper in America.
Another American swimmer in France in 1926 to try and swim the Channel was Lillian Cannon from Baltimore. She was also sponsored by a newspaper, the ''Baltimore Post'', which tried to create a rivalry between her and Ederle in the weeks spent training off the French coast. In addition to Cannon, several other swimmers, including two other American women – Clarabelle Barrett and Amelia Gade Corson – were training in England with the goal of becoming the first woman to swim the Channel. Barrett and Cannon were unsuccessful but three weeks after Ederle's feat, Corson crossed in a time that was an hour slower than Ederle.
For her second attempt at the Channel, Ederle had an entourage aboard the tug (the ''Alsace'') on August 6, 1926, which included her father and one of her sisters, Meg, as well as Julia Harpman, wife of Westbrook Pegler
Francis James Westbrook Pegler (August 2, 1894 – June 24, 1969) was an American journalist and writer. He was a popular columnist in the 1930s and 1940s famed for his opposition to the New Deal and labor unions. Pegler aimed his pen at president ...
and a writer for the '' New York Daily News'', the paper that sponsored Ederle's swim. Harpman wouldn't allow reporters from other newspapers on the tug – in order to protect her "scoop" – and as a result a second tug was hired by the disgruntled reporters. On several occasions during the swim this tug (the ''Morinie'') came in close to Ederle and nearly endangered her chances. The incident caused subsequent bitterness. It also led to accusations in the British press that the two tugs had in fact sheltered Ederle from the bad weather and thus made her swim "easier".
During her twelfth hour at sea, Burgess, her trainer, had become so concerned by unfavorable winds that he called to her 'Gertie, you must come out!' The swimmer lifted her head from the choppy waters and replied, 'What for?'
Only five men had been able to swim the English Channel before Ederle. The best time had been 16 hours, 33 minutes by Enrique Tiraboschi. Ederle walked up the beach at Kingsdown, England, after 14 hours and 34 minutes. The first person to greet her was a British immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
officer who requested a passport from "the bleary-eyed, waterlogged teenager".
When Ederle returned home, she was greeted with a ticker-tape parade
A ticker-tape parade is a parade event held in an urban setting, characterized by large amounts of shredded paper thrown onto the parade route from the surrounding buildings, creating a celebratory flurry of paper. Originally, actual ticker tap ...
in Manhattan. More than two million people lined the streets of the parade route to cheer her. She made an arrangement with Edward L. Hyman to make a personal appearance at the Brooklyn Mark Strand, and she was paid an amount far greater than they had ever paid an individual performer prior. Subsequently, she went on to play herself in a movie (''Swim Girl, Swim
''Swim Girl, Swim'' is a lost 1927 American silent romantic comedy film produced and distributed by Famous Players-Lasky and Paramount Pictures, now amalgamated as Paramount Famous Lasky. It was directed by Clarence Badger and starred Bebe Daniel ...
'' starring Bebe Daniels
Phyllis Virginia "Bebe" Daniels (January 14, 1901 – March 16, 1971) was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer, and producer.
She began her career in Hollywood during the silent film era as a child actress, became a star in musicals such ...
) and tour the vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
circuit, including later Billy Rose's Aquacade. She met President Coolidge and had a song and a dance step named for her. Her manager, Dudley Field Malone
Dudley Field Malone (June 3, 1885 – October 5, 1955) was an American attorney, politician, liberal activist, and actor. Malone is best remembered as one of the most prominent liberal attorneys in the United States during the decade of the 1920s ...
, was not able to capitalize on her notoriety, so Ederle's career in vaudeville wasn't a huge financial success. The Great Depression also diminished her financial rewards. A fall down the steps of her apartment building in 1933 twisted her spine and left her bedridden for several years, but she recovered well enough to appear at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Death
Ederle had poor hearing since childhood due to measles, and by the 1940s she was almost completely deaf. Aside from her time in vaudeville, she taught swimming to deaf children.[ She was never married and she was living in an old peoples home in 2001.] She died on November 30, 2003, in Wyckoff, New Jersey
Wyckoff is a township in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 16,585. At the time of the 2010 census, the township's population was 16,696, reflecting an increase of ...
, at the age of 97. She was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Legacy
Ederle was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame
The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the s ...
as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1965.[ She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003.
An annual swim from New York City's Battery Park to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, is called the Ederle Swim in memory of Gertrude Ederle, and follows the course she swam.
The Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center is located in Manhattan.
A ]BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
play, ''The Great Swim'', by Anita Sullivan, based on the 2008 book of the same name by Gavin Mortimer, was first broadcast on September 1, 2010, and repeated on January 23, 2012. It dramatizes Ederle's record-breaking crossing of the English Channel.
A biographical film, ''Young Woman and the Sea
''Young Woman and the Sea'' is an upcoming American biographical drama film written by Jeff Nathanson and directed by Joachim Rønning, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. The film stars Daisy Ridley and centers o ...
'', based on the book of the same name by Glenn Stout, is set to be directed by Joachim Rønning
Joachim Rønning (born 30 May 1972) is a Norwegian film director who previously worked in a partnership with Espen Sandberg, both of whom came from Sandefjord, Norway. As a directing team, they went under the name of Roenberg (a portmanteau of ...
from a screenplay by Jeff Nathanson
Jeffrey D. Nathanson (born October 12, 1965) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer.
Early life and education
Nathanson was born on October 12, 1965, in Los Angeles County, California. He attended the University of California, San ...
and is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerome Leon Bruckheimer (born September 21, 1943) is an American film and television producer. He has been active in the genres of action, drama, fantasy, and science fiction.
His films include '' Flashdance'', ''Top Gun'', '' The Rock'', '' ...
initially for Paramount Pictures, but is later acquired by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...
for Disney+
Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
, with Daisy Ridley
Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley (born 10 April 1992) is an English actress. She rose to prominence for her role as Rey in the ''Star Wars'' sequel trilogy: ''The Force Awakens'' (2015), ''The Last Jedi'' (2017), and ''The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019) ...
to play Ederle.
See also
* List of female adventurers
This is a list of women who explored or travelled the world in a pioneering way. The list may include women naturalists, sailors, mountain climbers, dog sledders, swimmers, pilots, and underwater explorers. Astronauts are not included here ...
* List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
This is the complete list of women's Olympic medalists in swimming.
Current program
50 metre freestyle
100 metre freestyle
200 metre freestyle
400 metre freestyle
800 metre freestyle
1500 metre freestyle
100 metre backstroke
2 ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Find A Grave page for Gertrude Jacobs Ederle
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ederle, Gertrude
1905 births
2003 deaths
American female freestyle swimmers
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
Deaf swimmers
English Channel swimmers
World record setters in swimming
Female long-distance swimmers
Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
People from Highlands, New Jersey
People from Wyckoff, New Jersey
Sportspeople from Queens, New York
Swimmers at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Vaudeville performers
Deaf people from the United States
20th-century American women
20th-century American people
21st-century American women