Gertrude Ederle, the American swimmer, achieved a historic milestone when the then 20-year-old athlete swam across the English Channel, becoming the first woman to complete the crossing.
Already an established athlete, the New York native took home a gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay and a bronze in the 100-meter and 400-meter freestyle events during the 1924 Paris Olympics.
A year after her Olympic success, Ederle became a trailblazer in swimming when she crossed from Battery Park to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, completing the 22-mile swim in 7 hours and 11 minutes.
Still a teenager, she delivered a record-breaking performance by becoming the first woman to complete the New York Bay Swim, a record that remained unmatched for 81 years.
Undeterred by her failed attempt in the summer of 1925, she returned to the English Channel determined to accomplish the historic feat.
Less than a month before, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to successfully swim the English Channel.Getty Images
With the help of her new coach and skilled Channel swimmer T.W. Burgess, Ederle successfully crossed from Dover, England, to Cap Gris-Nez in France, completing the swim in about 14 hours and 31 minutes, which was 1 hour and 48 minutes faster than the previous record.
At 20, not only did Ederle surpass the men’s record of 16 hours and 33 minutes, set by Argentine swimmer Enrique Tirabocchi, but she also became the first woman to swim across the 21-mile English Channel.
Despite the deteriorating conditions and damage to her hearing during the Channel swim, she showed great determination to finish the crossing and set a new record.
“I knew it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it,” she told Alec Rutherford of The New York Times.
Ederle received a triumphant homecoming after her historic achievement sparked international and national celebration, cementing her status as one of the most celebrated athletes of her era.
At that time, an estimated 2 million people flooded the streets of Lower Manhattan, with spectators lining Broadway to welcome the Olympian.
Before her death in 2003 at the age of 98, she dedicated most of her adult life to teaching deaf children in New York City to swim, while her achievement helped inspire more than 60,000 American women to earn their Red Cross swimming certifications during the 1920s.
In 2026, the Channel Swimming Association marked the centenary of Ederle becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926.
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