The First Woman To Swim The Channel

Gertrude Ederle smashed records on 6th August, 1926, becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel - and in faster time than any man before her. Battling six-foot waves and jellyfish swarms, the American teen zig-zagged the current for over 14 hours from France to England. Sponsored by the New York Daily News, Ederle had a nation in thrall, who, thanks to newfangled wireless radio updates, were able to follow her progress live like it was the Super Bowl. When she stepped onto the beach in Dover, journalists literally swam out to meet her. Back home, 2 million people packed the streets of NYC for her ticker-tape parade — the first ever for a woman. President Calvin Coolidge dubbed her “America’s Best Girl.” In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover the more dispiriting final chapters of Ederle’s life; explain how she was able to drink soup whilst she was swimming; and interrogate whether she really was the ‘flapper’ the 1920s press ghostwriters made her out to be… Further Reading: • ‘Young Woman and The Sea: The Real History of Gertrude Ederle’s Swim’ (HistoryExtra, 2024): https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/gertrude-ederle-first-woman-swim-swam-english-channel-matthew-webb-american/ • ‘This Day In Sports: Gertrude Ederle Swims the Channel’ (The New York Times, 2004): https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/08.06.html?scp=1&sq=English%20Bay&st=cse • ‘Young Woman and the Sea | Official Trailer’ (Disney, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tNvrYzPUrk Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices