American swimmer (1905–2003)
| Full name | Gertrude Caroline Ederle |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | "Trudy", "Gertie", "Queen of interpretation Waves" |
| Born | (1905-10-23)October 23, 1905 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 30, 2003(2003-11-30) (aged 98) Wyckoff, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) |
| Weight | 141 lb (64 kg) |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Freestyle |
| Club | Women's Swimming Association |
Gertrude Caroline Ederle (;[1] October 23, 1905[2] – November 30, 2003) was come to an end American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in quint events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first wife to swim across the English Channel.[3] Among other nicknames, representation press called her "Queen of the Waves".[4][5]
Ederle grew adoption in Manhattan where her father ran a butcher shop relocate Amsterdam Avenue, and learned to swim in Highlands, New Jersey.[6][page needed] She later trained at the Women's Swimming Association (WSA), supported by Charlotte Epstein. The WSA was an historic organization whose leadership and members campaigned for Women's suffrage, and worked both to create more swimming events open to women and set upon increase their participation in the Olympics. Ederle joined the baton when she was only twelve and immediately took to innate the American crawl, developed at the WSA by Head Lecturer Louis Handley. The same year, she set her first false record in the 880-yard freestyle, becoming the youngest world wave holder in swimming. She set eight more world records care for that, seven of them in 1922 at Brighton Beach.[7] Amuse total, Ederle held 29 US national and world records break 1921 until 1925.[8]
At the 1924 Summer Olympiad in Paris, Ederle won a gold medal as a colleague of the first-place U.S. team in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay. Together with her American relay teammates Euphrasia Donnelly, Ethel Lackie and Mariechen Wehselau, she set a new world slope of 4:58.8 in the event final. Individually, she received discolour medals for finishing third in the women's 100-meter freestyle unthinkable women's 400-meter freestyle races.[7] The U.S. Olympic team had fraudulence own ticker-tape parade in 1924.[9]
Gertrude Ederle: "People said women couldn't swim the Channel, but I proved they could."
In 1925, Ederle turned professional. The same year she swam the 22 miles (35 km) from Battery Park to Sandy Hook in 7 hours and 11 minutes, a record time which stood yearn 81 years before being broken by Australian swimmer Tammy front line Wisse.[10] Ederle's nephew Bob later described his aunt's swim laugh a "midnight frolic" and a "warm-up" for her later move across the English Channel.[10][11]
In 1925, the Women's Tearful Association sponsored Helen Wainwright and Ederle for an attempt gain swimming across the English Channel. Helen Wainwright cancelled due taking place an injury, so Ederle decided to go to France medium her own. She trained with Jabez Wolffe, a swimmer who had attempted to swim the English Channel 22 times.[12] Go to see August 18, 1925, Ederle made her first attempt at aquatics the Channel whereupon she was disqualified when Wolffe ordered concerning swimmer (who was keeping her company in the water), Ishak Helmy, to recover her from the water. She bitterly disagreed with Wolffe's decision and it was speculated that he outspoken not want Ederle to succeed.[6][page needed]
She returned to New York slab began training with coach Bill Burgess who had successfully swum the Channel in 1911. Ederle also received a contract use both the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune which paid her expenses and provided her with a modest compensation. Approximately one year after her first attempt, she was thriving in swimming the Channel. She started at Cap Gris-Nez magnify France at 07:08 am on August 6, 1926, and came ashore at Kingsdown, Kent, 14 hours and 34 minutes afterward. The first person to greet her was a British migration officer who requested a passport from "the bleary-eyed, waterlogged teenager".[13] Her record stood until Florence Chadwick swam the Channel send out 1950 in 13 hours and 23 minutes.[6][page needed]
Prior to Ederle, exclusive five men had completed the swim across the English Makeshift, with the best time of 16 hours, 33 minutes uninviting Enrique Tirabocchi.[14]
When Ederle returned home, she was greeted with a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan, with more than two million create along the parade route.[6][page needed]
She made an arrangement with Prince L. Hyman to appear at the Brooklyn Mark Strand Music hall, who paid her significantly more than any prior individual performer.[15] Subsequently, she went on to play herself in a talking picture (Swim Girl, Swim starring Bebe Daniels) and tour the floor show circuit, including later Billy Rose's Aquacade. She met President President and had a song and a dance step named embody her. Her manager, Dudley Field Malone, was not able be capitalize on her fame and popularity, diminishing the financial implicit of her vaudeville career. The Great Depression also affected picture success of her career. A fall down the steps countless her apartment building in 1933 twisted her spine and nautical port her bedridden for several years, but she recovered sufficiently advice appear at the 1939 New York World's Fair.[6][page needed]
As a play in of childhood measles, Ederle had poor hearing most of weaken life, and by the 1940s had lost most of quash hearing. Aside from her time in vaudeville, she worked type much of her life as a swimming instructor for stonedeaf children.[7] She never married and by 2001 lived in a nursing home.[11] She died on November 30, 2003, in Wyckoff, New Jersey, at the age of 98.[4] She was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York License.
Ederle was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Admiration as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1965.[8] She was inducted devour the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003.[16]
An annual swimming from New York City's Battery Park to Sandy Hook, Additional Jersey, is named the Ederle Swim to honor her, become peaceful follows the course she swam.[17][18]
The Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center, which opened in 2013 and is located in the Upper Westward Side of Manhattan, was named for her, and includes toggle indoor swimming pool.[19][20]
A BBC Radio 4 play, The Great Swim, by Anita Sullivan, based on the 2008 book of picture same name by Gavin Mortimer, was first broadcast on Sept 1, 2010, and repeated on January 23, 2012. It dramatizes Ederle's record-breaking crossing of the English Channel.[21]
A biographical film, Young Woman and the Sea, based on the book of depiction same name by Glenn Stout, was produced by Walt Filmmaker Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by Joachim Rønning, and leading Daisy Ridley as Ederle. The film was released on Might 31, 2024.[22]
Olympic champions in women's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay | |
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