Gertrude Ederle

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Gertrude Ederle, 1930

Gertrude Caroline Ederle (born October 23, 1905 in New York City , New York , † November 30, 2003 in Wyckoff , New Jersey ) was an American swimmer and the first woman to swim the English Channel .

Life

Gertrude Ederle was the daughter of German emigrants, Gertrude Anna Haberstroh and Henry Ederle. She allegedly learned to swim in the spring of 1914 while visiting relatives in Bissinger See .

At the age of twelve she set the first world record in the 800 m freestyle . In the following years she broke eleven other world records and won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay and two bronze medals in the 100 and 400 meters freestyle at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris .

Channel crossing

On August 6, 1926, she was the first woman to swim the English Channel between Cap Gris-Nez and Dover . She needed 14 hours and 32 minutes and was over two hours earlier than the previous world record holder. Driven by the current, she had covered 56 km. She was then made an honorary citizen of New York. As early as the summer of 1925, she had attempted to cross, but it was stopped due to a misunderstanding of her companions.

She was looked after by her trainer William Burgess, who had also swum the English Channel in 1911, but needed 16 attempts.

On August 27, 1926, a confetti parade was held for them in New York's Financial District , which was attended by an estimated two million spectators. US President Calvin Coolidge received them in the White House for a special audience. In 1927 she had a ten-minute guest appearance in the romantic comedy Swim, Girl, Swim . Despite numerous admirers, Ederle remained unmarried.

The German long-distance swimmer Ernst Vierkötter improved the canal record three weeks later with a new world record time of 12 hours and 42 minutes.

Her world record for women was beaten in 1950 by the American Florence Chadwick in 13 hours and 20 minutes. Ederle never recognized this new record because the weather conditions with less swell were better for Chadwick.

In 1926, in honor of Gertrude Ederle, a song called "Trudy" was composed by Charles Tobias and Al Sherman .

illness

Ederle had been hard of hearing from a measles infection since childhood . When her eardrums were at the crossing of the English Channel attacked by salt water, she started to become deaf , but her passion remained faithful and worked as a swimming teacher for deaf children. In 1929 her doctor diagnosed future complete deafness, which had occurred in 1940 at the latest.

In 1933 she was paralyzed by a spinal injury. With tireless training, however, she managed to learn to walk again by 1939, and later on she succeeded in swimming again. Under President Eisenhower she was admitted to the Advisory Board for Youth Efficiency.

In 1965 she was inducted into the international swimming pool 's hall of fame .

literature

  • Glenn Stout, Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World. Boston / New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-618-85868-2 .

Web links

Commons : Gertrude Ederle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 144.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Most famous swimmer in the world: The young woman and the sea. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved August 5, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b Dover Solo - Gertrude Ederle. (No longer available online.) In: www.doversolo.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2016 ; accessed on August 5, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.doversolo.com
  4. ↑ see e.g. B. Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, Victor / HMV B-5162
  5. ↑ Biography at HickokSports.com ( Memento from April 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved March 30, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Ederle, Gertrude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ederle, Trudy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American swimmer
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 2003
Place of death Wyckoff , New Jersey , United States