In her early teens, Ederle dropped out of school to train in swimming year-round. Leaving school at a young age was common at this time — many children left school to work and help support their families. After decades of protest and activism for suffrage rights, on August 18, , the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
However, this right was only guaranteed for white women; African American women were restricted from voting through racist tactics such as poll taxes and literacy tests, as well as violence. At the Paris Olympics, 3, athletes competed in events. Ederle won a gold medal in the meter freestyle relay, and bronze medals in the meter, and meter freestyle races.
Between and , Ederle held 29 world records, including a long distance race from New York to New Jersey. Only five men had successfully swam across the Channel before. This was a violation, and disqualified her. In , Ederle fired her coach, Jabez Wolfee, who had touched her halfway through her attempt to swim the English Channel, disqualifying her. She replaced him with T. Burgess, a skilled Channel swimmer. T o get the job, Burgess had to promise Ederle that he would never pull her out of the water unless she asked to be.
Ederle was determined to swim the Channel. To enhance her mobility in the water, Ederle designed her own goggles and a more aerodynamic two-piece swimsuit — revolutionary for the time, when women wore full length skirts and often long-sleeves and stockings, which were sometimes made of wool. Women were told to conceal their bodies on the beach or at the pool, and these outfits were highly restrictive for swimming.
Ederle also prepared a combination of olive oil, petrolatum, lard and lanolin to apply before the swim, to keep her body temperature up and protect her from jellyfish bites.
On August 6, , Ederle set off again from Cap Gris-Nez, France into the frigid water and treacherous tides, and successfully swam the English Channel, which separates Great Britain from the northwestern tip of France. The wind and currents during the swim were extremely strong and pushed her off course, making her swim several extra miles. Two million people celebrated her with a ticker tape parade in the streets of New York City. On November 7, while on tour in Washington, D.
It was a remarkable feat. After successfully swimming the English Channel, Ederle became a professional swimmer, which disqualified from continuing a career in competitive swimming, or from competing in the Olympics. In order to work, Ederle toured the country on the vaudeville circuit, demonstrating the crawl in a portable tank. She toured on the road for two years, doing five shows a day. Doctors told her that her heart was being affected by too strenuous of an experience for someone her age.
The Channel swim led Ederle to experience greater hearing loss, and she eventually became almost deaf. It was barely visible, however, under her three layers of grease: a base layer of olive oil; then lanolin, a heavy yellow-white grease; and on top of that a coat that combined lard and Vaseline. She looked more like a basted chicken than a swimmer as she dived into the channel, quickly striking up a rate of 28 strokes per minute using her powerful overarm crawl.
After two hours in the water, Ederle was four and a half miles north-west of her starting point and about to swing north-east on the flood tide towards the middle of the channel. After five hours Ederle had swum 11 miles and Dover was 10 miles to the north-west. She continued to make steady progress throughout the afternoon, but then at around 5pm the weather turned on the American.
The deteriorating conditions forced Bill Burgess to plot a new course, heading away from Dover with the current, and going north up the Kentish coast. The next four hours pushed Ederle to the limits of her endurance, as she battled strong seas and chilly temperatures, but at 9.
Ederle had not only become the first woman to cross the channel, she had smashed the existing record of 16 hours and 33 minutes, set in by the Argentine swimmer Enrique Tirabocchi. Despite the miserable weather, there were an estimated 4, people waiting to greet her — Britons who had been drawn to the beach in the giddy excitement of witnessing a slice of sporting history. It did not matter that Ederle was an American; the men and women who welcomed her ashore were there to celebrate the triumph of the human spirit.
When Ederle woke the next morning in a Dover hotel it was to global superstardom. Much of government, most of law and practically all of morality is based upon this assumption. She pursued her dreams and found economic independence through it. In , Gertrude became a professional swimmer.
Her older sister, who was also a swimmer, convinced her to try swimming record-breaking distances instead of shorter races. Gertrude made it in seven hours and eleven minutes, faster than the previous record—which was held by a man. The English Channel is the sea between England and continental Europe.
It is twenty-one miles long and very rough. By , five men had swum across the Channel. Although several women had tried, none succeeded. Gertrude was frustrated, but knew he was right. She was determined to prepare more and attempt it again.
She wore a loose, heavy one-piece bathing suit that was continually filling up with water as she was swimming. In preparation for her second attempt, Gertrude designed her own outfit. She took a lighter one-piece suit and cut it into two. She also made it tighter so it would not fill with water.
Gertrude tried again on August 6, She entered the water near Cape Gris-Nez, France. The water was freezing and the waves were as high as six feet. The sea was full of stinging jelly fish and six-foot sharks.
Gertrude wore her two-piece bathing suit and goggles she had designed for the swim. She also coated her entire body in grease to help with the cold. Gertrude could take breaks and accept snacks and water from her coach, but the two could not touch. Her snacks included chicken, fruit, and soup. Reporters on a nearby tugboat broadcast her progress. As people in Dover, England, realized that the year-old American was going to make it, they flocked to the shoreline.
When Gertrude arrived, a huge crowd was there to welcome her. Gertrude was exhausted and could barely stand. But she had succeeded in Her swim was two hours faster than the then-current record holder. No one would break her record until Gertrude was an instant celebrity.
An American woman had set a new record—against an all-male field. New York City honored her with another ticker-tape parade. It is estimated that two million people came to cheer her on. She was also invited to the White House. After her successful Channel swim, Gertrude capitalized on her fame. She appeared in movies and performed in vaudeville shows.
Tragically, Gertrude slipped on the stairs in her apartment building in and seriously hurt her back. She could not walk for several years, and never returned to competitive swimming. In the s, her hearing loss became worse and she went almost completely deaf. Gertrude decided it was time to slow down. She had achieved her greatest goal—swimming the English Channel—and was grateful for it.
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