Is Your Swimmer the Next Gertrude Ederle?

Even as a kid, Gertrude Ederle of New York City loved being in the water. She swam and played in the pool and at the New Jersey beach where her family spent the summers in the 1910s.

But Gertrude wanted more than to swim and play. She wanted to compete. So as a teen she left school to train as hard as she could, back when girls her age were expected to prepare for life as a housewife. Not Gertrude.

By the time she was 20, she owned 29 swimming records and an Olympic gold medal — and two bronzes — won in the 1924 Games. Looking for more challenges, she decided to swim the English Channel. Did she ever!

In 1926, just a couple of months shy of her 21st birthday, Gertrude Ederle slathered lanolin all over her body to ward off jellyfish stings and became the first woman to swim the cold, choppy and demanding English Channel. And she did it faster than anyone else before her, man or woman. Now a bona fide star in sports crazy America of the 1920s, Gertrude was looked up to along with the likes of Babe Ruth.

We can learn a lot from Gertrude Ederle:

• Encourage kids to dream big and encourage those dreams, no matter how far-fetched they may seem
• Make sure kids are having fun while mastering a new skill. Research — and our experience as teachers at Big Blue Swim School — shows that fun leads to learning.
• If competitive swimming is in your kid’s blood, get them dedicated teachers like the experienced competitive swim teachers here at Big Blue. Your kids might earn a place on our swim team!

For Gertrude Ederle, competitive swimming ended as she approached 30. Later in life she became a swim instructor at a school for deaf children, realizing how important it was for all children to safely discover the joy of swimming just as she did as a child who had hearing problems of her own.

Gertrude Ederle, who died deaf at age 98 in 2003, was a one-of-a-kind swimming sensation.