Gertrude Ederle
Mckenzie Jones
Gertrude Ederle
Gertrude Ederly was an Olympic swimmer. Aside from swimming in the 1924 Olympics as a 19 year old. She also swam the English Channel as a 21 year old in only 14 hours and 21 minutes, which bested the previous record (set by a man) by 2 hours! Although, she did not fit the stereotype of women who went out to clubs everyday, instead she "beat" the stereotypical double standard, and she accomplished great things. Unfortunately as all great things do, her swimming career came to an end when she fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a spinal cord injury. Again she fought against the odds and worked back up to the point where she could walk and tech children how to swim. She spent the end of her life in the nursing home and died at age of 98 of natural causes.
How can a swimmer impact society?
Ederle impacted the 1920's in more ways that just swimming. She exceeded the usual life that women lived in this time, she set records that were higher than men's, she proved women had just as much of a right to the things that men did if they put in the time, instead of living the typical (for this time) double standard life! Any women could accomplish great things now, because of the rights they just received, if they wanted to...the problem was a lot of women just wanted to go out every night of the week. I think Gertrude being socially awkward helped her reach the things she did, because she did not was to go to clubs every night!
Gertrude Swimming
This picture was taken about a month before Gertrude became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
Olympics
This is a picture of Gertrude Ederle and her fellow swimmers. She is on the far right.
She Finishes!
This is the newspaper clipping from when Ederle finished swimming the English Channel and beat the best man's time.
Gertrude Ederle
Sources
- http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&u=lees33148&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CK2875000093
- http://yesteryear.clunette.com/olympic.html