August 6, 1926

On this day in history in 1926 Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel.

A Swimmer's History

Gertrude Ederle was born in New York City in 1905. Despite her later achievements she did not grow up in the water. She didn't learn to swim until she was 9-years-old and even then she didn't actually learn proper form until she was 15. Yet even with her late start she joined the 1924 Paris Olympics at the age of 17 and won gold in the 4 x 100 meter relay. She also took home bronze in both the 100- and 400-meter freestyles.

Swimming the English Channel wasn't Ederle's first non-Olympic feat. In 1925 she became the first woman to swim the New York Bay. She even broke the previous men's record while doing it. That same summer she made her first attempt at swimming the English Channel but she was forced to stop by her coach who feared she was swallowing too much saltwater through the choppy sea. She fired her coach after.

Crossing the Channel

Gertrude Ederle in her second attempt swimming the English Channel

One year after her failed attempt Ederle once again attempted to cross the English Channel. She left from France just after 7 in the morning. Although her new coach tried to get her to quit twice due to squalls she encountered, Ederle continued on. After fourteen and a half hours of swimming she reached the English coast. She became the sixth person to swim the Channel, and the first woman. She also beat the previous record by two hours. During her cold swim she damaged her hearing and spent her adult life teaching deaf childcare to swim. She died in 2003 at the age of 98.