NYCkayaker Gertrude Ederle, legend Sandy Hook swim

[Richard Clifford]

NYCKayaker,
     Gertrude Ederle was an amazing woman who also was a great and accomplished 
swimmer. Take a look below for details. Approximaely 82 years ago, at the age of
19 years, she set out from the Battery across New York Harbor's lower bay and on
to Sandy Hook, NJ. She set the record and it has stood for those 82 years. She was
the first woman to swim the English Channel and held the record there for more than
25 years. She won several medals in the Olympics. 

     So, in the year of what would have been her 100th birthday, Tammy van Wisse
is making a go at that record. On Friday, July 21 at 7 AM Tammy is setting off from
Gangway 1 in the Battery and following Gertrude's course headed for Sandy Hook. 
Some of you are swimming enthusiastsand may be interested in witnessing this start.
There is huge coverage from the Australian media who will be on  hand. We are all
pretty exited and lookng forward to a terrific swim. 

     This comes from the obituary in the Boston Globe. "I have no complaints,"
Ms. Ederle said in one interview in the 1950s. "I am comfortable and satisfied.
I am not a person who reaches for the moon as long as I have the stars. God has 
been good to me." We all should be so fortunate. 
    
     Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in more info.  Hoping 
to see some of you down there. Best wishes, Richard Clifford


http://www.msu.edu/~grawbur1/iahweb.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/gertrude-ederle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Ederle

Gertrude Caroline Ederle (October 23, 1906 – November 30, 2003) was an American
competitive swimmer. In 1926, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel.

Gertrude was the daughter of a German immigrant who ran a delicatessen on Amsterdam
Avenue in Manhattan. Known as Trudy as a youth, her father gave her permission to
bob her hair if she expressed an interest in swimming.

She trained at the Women's Swimming Association which produced such competitors 
as Eleanor Holm and Esther Williams. She joined the club when she was only thirteen,
five years prior to making her successful Channel swim. From this time Gertrude 
began to break and establish more amateur records than any woman in the world.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal as a part of the US 400-meter 
freestyle relay team and bronze medals for finishing third in the 100-meter and 
400-meter freestyle races.

The following year, 1925, she swam a 21-mile crossing across Lower New York Bay,
from Manhattan to Sandy Hook, taking over seven hours. Later that year, she made
her first attempt at swimming the Channel, but she was disqualified when a trainer
grabbed her after she began coughing.

Her famous cross-channel swim began at Cap Gris-Nez in France at 07:05 on the morning
of August 6, 1926. Fourteen hours and 30 minutes later, she came ashore at Kingsdown,
England. Her record stood until Florence Chadwick swam the channel in 1950 in 13
hours and 20 minutes.  .............



Richard C. Clifford, Esq.
1890 Palmer Avenue, Suite 302
Larchmont, NY 10538

Tel: (914) 834-0757
Cell: (917) 854-5824
Fax: (914) 834-0888
Email: RichardClifford at earthlink.net
RichardClifford at NYSBar.com