Updated August 06, 2009
It isn’t often that a young person does something alone that captures the attention of the whole world. On this day in 1926, 19-year old New Yorker Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. She chose a day so rough that steamship trips were canceled.
She not only completed the swim, but her time of 14 hours and 31 minutes broke a record that had stood for more than 50 years. A powerful swimmer, Ederle had won three Olympic medals and set 29 records before her channel adventure. Her crossing turned her into an international celebrity and sparked a jump in the popularity of swimming. Today, some 55-million people in the U.S. enjoy swimming, ranking it only behind exercise walking and camping as Americans’ most popular recreational activity.
You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at www.census.gov.
