MISS GERTRUDE EDERLE

Shannon News, 20 August 1926, Page 4

MISS GERTRUDE EDERLE

HER NOTABLE CAREER. FAME AS A SWIMMER. ' /The success of Miss Gertrude 'Ederle in the Channel swim will have caused gratification rather, than surprise to those who have followed her career. She is a' .siiperb swimnier, easily the greatest all-rouhd woman . swimmer the world has yet seen. Her record time for the Channel swim does not constitute here first success in, beating the best times registered by men t over distances, for in a twenty-one mile swim in *open water at New York, about a year ago, she easily beat the best time ever re- ' corded by a man over the course. Gertrude Ederle her swimming career, in 1918, when she was li years, of age. She was: a member of the Women’s Swimming Association, an organisation that has become world-famous for the achievements of. its. members. Her rise was rapid ,and before the end of her first year she had qualified as a member of the relay team which her club sent to contest the junior national 400 yards relay championship, and she helped her team to win this event in what was world’s record time. For the next two or three years Miss Ederle took little part in competition, mainly owing to the demands made on her tin) 3 by her studies. In 1922, howev ;r, she won the 220 yards high schools championship. In the following y.iar she gave her first proof of her abilities as a distance swimmer. More out of bravado thap •,anything else, she entered in the three and a-half miles race from Manhattan to Brighton Beach for the Day Cup.. Her chance of success was not regarded as serious, for she had taken part in no long-distance competitions previously, and the competitors in the race included Miss Helen Wainwright, who had just previously made a national record for the mile ,and held all the national distance titles,, and Miss ■Hilda James, the. English champion. However, Miss Ederle won the event with ease. The race proved i the |urning point in Miss Ederle's career, and thereafter she entered on a new phase which was a triumphal progress so far as the, distance events were concerned. By a strange irony of fate, she lost form for a few months, and this period included the fateful weeks in which the Olympic Games were decided. Before the ensuing national championships, however, she had made a complete return to form ,and showed herself a more brilliant swimmer than ever. A wondeful season in which she broke eight world’s records, culminated in a swim , from Battery to Sandy Hook, a distance of 21 miles, in 7hr 11 min 30secs, beating, the best'time recorded by a man for the swim by about seven minutes. Then followed her first atetmpt on the Channel. She failed, but in eight hours and forty minutes that she was in the water she covered a greater distance than had any other swimmer ,man or woman, over the same course in the same time. In comparing Miss Ederle's record time with the times put up by men in Channel swims, the fact has to be remembered that' no noted

speed swimmer among the men have essayed the Channel swim. For the most part, her only attribute, possessed by the male aspirants has been their capacity for endurance —none of them won any important laurels In the competitive field.