Gertrude Ederle

“America’s Best Girl”

~President Calvin Coolidge

Early childhood

• Born on October 23rd, 1905 in New York.• At the age of eight, Ederle had her first

experience with deep water when she almost drowned in a pond.

• That’s when she realized she want to learn how to swim.

• Her father taught her by tying a rope around her waist and throwing her in a river.

Early competing

• By the age of 12, she was competing in swimming galas.

• When she was 15, she won a three-mile race across New York Bay.

• Between 1921 and 1925 she held 29 national and world records and won two bronze metals and a gold metal at the olympics in Paris in 1924.

Famous Accomplishment

Ederle was a symbol of the roaring 20’s for her great accomplishment of being the first women to swim across the English Channel.

Now that she was the very first woman to swim all the way across the English Channel, people would start taking female athletes seriously.

Once she arrived in Kent after her great swim she announced, “I knew it could be

done.”

Details

In 1926, She beat the records of five men who had previously made the swim from 1875-1923.

When she was only 19 years old, she completed her 35 mile swim for a world record of 14 hours and 31 minutes.

President Calvin Coolidge called her “America’s best girl” for her accomplishment.

Video of Gertrude’s accomplishment

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeQkkQzPD0Q

As she got older

• Ederle’s hearing started to worsen, and sh had faded into the public eye.

• During WWII she worked at LaGuardia airport as an aircraft instrument inspector, and taught deaf children how to swim at a New York City school.

• She died at the age 98 on November 30th, 2003.

Her contribution to today

• Gertrude Ederle proved that women were just as capable of doing the same activities as men, if not better.

• She proved this by beating five other men’s records of swimming the English Channel by nearly 2 hours.

Bibliography

• http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/01/sports/gertrude-ederle-the-first-woman-to-swim-across-the-english-channel-dies-at-98.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/16/gender.uk

By: AlainaHammer