1906-
First woman to swim the English Channel
Gertrude Ederle With her heroic swim, Ederle forever changed the Channel.
When Gertrude Ederle returned to her native New York City following her historic swim across the English Channel, Mayor James J. Walker likened her feat to Moses parting the Red Sea, Caesar crossing the Rubicon and Washington crossing the Delaware. The parade in which she was feted nearly equaled the Mayor's pronouncement in grandeur: two million people lined lower Broadway to shower America's newest sporting hero with ticker tape.
Before Ederle, then 19, set out to tackle swimming's Everest, only five men had successfully completed the Channel swim. On August 6, 1926, nearly one year after she was dragged from the same icy, gray waters during a previous attempt, Ederle plunged into the water at Cape Gris-Nez in France at 7:08 a.m. By mid-afternoon she was being pelted by wind, rain and heavy swells. The weather would force her to swim the equivalent of 35 miles to cover the 21-mile distance. She reached Kingsdown on the English coast at 9:04 p.m for a time of 14 hours, 31 minutes, shattering the existing record by more than two hours.
This remarkable achievement often overshadows the fact that Ederle won three medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics: a gold in the 4x100-meter relay and bronze in the 100 and 400 freestyle. Though Ederle's athletic successes were great, they did not come without consequence. Her hearing was seriously damaged by the Channel swim and she was partially deaf by 1928. Ederle has spent much of her later life in New York City teaching deaf children how to swim.
They Said It: "People said women couldn't swim the Channel but I proved they could." --Ederle
-- Richard Deitsch
Athletes were selected by Sports Illustrated For Women, Sports Illustrated and CNN/SI editors, writers and correspondents who considered the athletes' on-field performance and achievements, plus their contributions to women's sports. Because athletic achievement was a key criterion, women whose contributions were made solely in administration and coaching are not included.
