22 Facts About Florence Chadwick

Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim across the English Channel in both directions, setting a time record each time.

Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Bosporus, and the Dardanelles.

Florence May Chadwick was born in San Diego on November 8,1918.

Florence Chadwick's parents were Richard Chadwick, a police officer, and Mary Lacko, a homemaker who later operated a San Diego restaurant.

Florence Chadwick attended San Diego State College and studied at several law schools and a business college.

Florence Chadwick was married and divorced twice, and had no children.

Florence Chadwick entered swimming competitions from a young age, scoring her first win at the age of ten, but she realized she preferred ocean events rather than pool swims.

Highly accomplished as a young competitive swimmer, Florence Chadwick won the 100-yard backstroke event at the Junior AAU National Championship at age 14 in May 1933 with a time of 1:17, and the following August won the junior 500-meter freestyle event at the 1933 Southern Pacific National AAU Swimming and Diving Championships in Los Angeles.

Chadwick's early instructor Florence Chambers won the 500-meter freestyle in the Women's adult division at the 1933 AAU Nationals, the same event Chadwick won as a junior competitor.

When Chadwick won the two-mile Los Angeles Hermosa Beach Roughwater Swim with a time of 54:23 while swimming for the San Diego Athletic Club on July 2,1933, her early instructor Florence Chambers, placed fifth.

On July 4,1933, Florence Chadwick handily won the 600-yard Venice Roughwater Swim for Women with a time of 15 minutes flat.

In 1950 Florence Chadwick attempted to enter a 1950 Channel-swimming contest sponsored by the Daily Mail but was refused for lack of a significant reputation.

One year later, Florence Chadwick crossed the channel again, from England to France this time, in 16 hours and 22 minutes, thus making her the first woman to swim across the channel in both directions, and setting a record for the England-France journey.

In 1952, Florence Chadwick attempted to swim the 26 miles between Catalina Island and the California coastline.

Florence Chadwick began to doubt her ability, and she told her mother, who was in one of the boats, that she did not think she could make it.

Florence Chadwick said that she kept a mental image of the shoreline in her mind while she swam.

Florence Chadwick gave product endorsements and served for many years as the spokesperson for Catalina Swimwear.

Florence Chadwick taught swimming at a number of venues and worked with Esther Williams to design movie swimming sequences.

Florence Chadwick worked as a credit counselor and stockbroker, and was an executive at San Diego's First Wall Street Corporation.

Florence Chadwick died at San Diego's Mercy Hospital of leukemia on March 15,1995.

In December 1951, Florence Chadwick appeared as herself in Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town musical series on CBS television.

In 1962, Florence Chadwick was inducted by the San Diego Hall of Champions into its Breitbard Hall of Fame.