Gertrude Caroline Ederle was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events.
24 Facts About Gertrude Ederle
2.
Gertrude Ederle's father taught her to swim in Highlands, New Jersey, where the family owned a summer cottage.
3.
Gertrude Ederle trained at the Women's Swimming Association, which produced such competitors as Ethelda Bleibtrey, Charlotte Boyle, Helen Wainwright, Aileen Riggin, Eleanor Holm and Esther Williams.
4.
Gertrude Ederle set eight more world records after that, seven of them in 1922 at Brighton Beach.
5.
In total, Gertrude Ederle held 29 US national and world records from 1921 until 1925.
6.
Helen Wainwright pulled out at the last minute because of an injury, so Gertrude Ederle decided to go to France on her own.
7.
Gertrude Ederle trained with Jabez Wolffe, a swimmer who had attempted to swim the Channel 22 times.
8.
Gertrude Ederle came ashore at Kingsdown, Kent, 14 hours and 34 minutes later.
9.
Gertrude Ederle's record stood until Florence Chadwick swam the Channel in 1950 in 13 hours and 23 minutes.
10.
Gertrude Ederle used motorcycle goggles to protect her eyes from salty water, as did Burgess in 1911.
11.
Gertrude Ederle possessed a contract from both the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune when she attempted the Channel swim a second time.
12.
Gertrude Ederle was sponsored by a newspaper, the Baltimore Post, which tried to create a rivalry between her and Ederle in the weeks spent training off the French coast.
13.
Barrett and Cannon were unsuccessful but three weeks after Gertrude Ederle's feat, Corson crossed in a time that was an hour slower than Gertrude Ederle.
14.
Gertrude Ederle walked up the beach at Kingsdown, England, after 14 hours and 34 minutes.
15.
When Gertrude Ederle returned home, she was greeted with a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan.
16.
Gertrude Ederle made an arrangement with Edward L Hyman to make a personal appearance at the Brooklyn Mark Strand, and she was paid an amount far greater than they had ever paid an individual performer prior.
17.
Gertrude Ederle met President Coolidge and had a song and a dance step named for her.
18.
Gertrude Ederle had poor hearing since childhood due to measles, and by the 1940s she was almost completely deaf.
19.
Gertrude Ederle was never married and she was living in an old peoples home in 2001.
20.
Gertrude Ederle died on November 30,2003, in Wyckoff, New Jersey, at the age of 97.
21.
Gertrude Ederle was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.
22.
Gertrude Ederle was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1965.
23.
Gertrude Ederle was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003.
24.
An annual swim from New York City's Battery Park to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, is called the Ederle Swim in memory of Gertrude Ederle, and follows the course she swam.