NYCkayaker Gertrude Ederle, legend Sandy Hook swim

[bcaplis at att.net]

There is a wonderful park in Highlands, NJ at the base of Sandy Hook that is Gertrude Ederle park.  There are beautiful plantings that are maintained by the garden society of Highlands and there are spectacular views of the ocean and the hook from there.  Part of her training for swimming the English channel was to swim from that point to the tip of Sandy Hook and back. 

Thanks for alerting others to this special woman.

Bill

-------------- Original message from Richard Clifford <richardclifford at earthlink.net>: -------------- 


> 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 
> 
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