Ederle, Gertrude

Ederle, Gertrude (Caroline)

(born Oct. 23, 1906, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 30, 2003, Wyckoff, N.J.) U.S. swimmer, the first woman to swim the English Channel. She set women's world freestyle records in the early 1920s, and in 1924 she won a gold medal (400-m freestyle relay) and two bronze medals (100-m and 400-m freestyle) at the Olympic Games. In 1926 she swam the 35-mi (56-km) English Channel in 14 hours 31 minutes, breaking the men's record by 1 hour 59 minutes.

---

Ederle, Gertrude (Caroline) (1906–  ) swimmer; born in New York City. After winning three medals in the 1924 Olympics, she became the first woman to swim the English channel (1926); her time of 14 hours, 31 minutes broke the existing men's record by two hours.