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The First But Not the LastIn
the history of sports, it is pioneers like Trudy Ederle who continually push
boundaries and challenge norms that gradually bridge gender inequalities and empower
women equal rights to participate in sports and competitions.
Stout,
G. 2022. Young woman and the sea: How Trudy Ederle conquered the English
Channel and inspired the world. New York: Mariner
Books.Sources:https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/young-woman-and-the-sea/https://www.harperacademic.com/book/9780063305397/young-woman-and-the-sea/https://glennstout.com/young-woman-and-the-sea/Yesterday
I watched the movie "Young Woman and the Sea"，which tells the story
of American swimmer Trudy Ederle and how she overcame numerous obstacles to
successfully swim across the English Channel. Beyond the geographical, tidal,
and weather challenges of crossing the English Channel, she faced social,
cultural, ideological, economic, and other man-made barriers. She became the
first woman to swim across the English Channel and broke the previous record
set by five men, finishing two hours faster than the quickest of them. Not only
did she achieve an unprecedented feat, but she also inspired the world and
shattered many myths and prejudices about women’s bodies being unsuitable for
swimming. The movie was excellent, and I wanted to learn more, so I turned to
the novel "Young woman and the sea: How Trudy Ederle conquered the English
Channel and inspired the world " by Glenn Stout. This helped me gain a deeper
understanding of the era and the significance of Trudy’s accomplishment. There
are some plot spoilers below, so please skip if you prefer not to know.It's
important to acknowledge that the movie, being a dramatization of real events,
can only depict part of the story. For example, Trudy had two highly skilled
swimming sisters, but the film only features one, Meg. Additionally, for
dramatic effect, the film downplays Trudy’s performance at the 1924 Paris
Olympics. Although Trudy won bronze medals in the 400m and 100m freestyle
(instead of the expected gold), she actually won the gold medal in the 4x100m
freestyle relay, which the film omits. In reality, from 1922 to 1925, Trudy
Ederle was one of the world’s greatest female swimmers, winning Olympic medals
and setting over ten world records, with the English Channel being her only
remaining challenge. The film also does not reveal the true source of the funds
for Trudy’s English Channel crossing; she had signed a contract with the Daily
News and the Chicago Tribune to ensure exclusive coverage. However, the movie’s
broad reach has quickly brought Trudy’s story to the public, sparking interest
in a way that books alone might not achieve.
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Trudy
Ederle (right) made her successful 21-mile Channel swim on August 6, 1926.
Source:https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/young-woman-and-the-sea/Ederle
completed her swim across the Channel in 14 hours and 31 minutes. her time was
faster than any of the five male swimmers who had crossed the Channel before
her, setting a world record for both men and women. She beat the previous
record-holder, male swimmer Enrique Tirabocchi, by more than two hours. It took
Tirabocchi 16 hours and 33 minutes to make it across the Channel three years
before Ederle crushed his record.in
the mid-1920s there were virtually no female athletes. In fact there was still
considerable debate over not only whether women had the right to compete as
athletes, but whether they were even physically able to do so. When Trudy swam
the Channel two hours faster than a man, she blew that argument right out of
the water, forever and for all time. She's a terrific role model for any young
woman--or, for that matter, anyone of any age or gender.How hard it is to swim across the English Channel？To
fully understand Trudy's achievement, we must appreciate the English Channel,
which is unlike any other body of water on Earth. The Channel was formed by the
violent collision of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, a turmoil that has
never subsided. These waters grab and pull on everything that enters them. The
sea in the Channel, even under the bright summer sun, is bone-chillingly cold.
The weather in the Channel can change within minutes; good weather is rare, and
bad weather is the norm. Most of the time, the coasts of France and England are
shrouded in thick fog and clouds, with poor visibility.Swimming
across the English Channel is more challenging than climbing Mount Everest. The
number of people who have swum across the Channel is far fewer than those who
have climbed Everest. According to Glenn Stout's book, since Sir Edmund Hillary
and Tenzing Norgay first accomplished this feat in 1953, over 3,000 people have
stood on the summit of Everest, but only 900 (about one-tenth of the attempted
swimmers) have successfully crossed the English Channel.Even
today, attempting to swim across the English Channel is not easy. Swimmers must
almost entirely rely on the tides and the accompanying pilot boat to stay on
the correct course. Swimmers need to use the tides to their advantage while
swimming against the current to somehow maintain their direction, ultimately
making their path perpendicular to the tide and crossing the Channel.
Therefore, the route for crossing the English Channel is never a straight line.
Depending on the swimmer’s speed and the tidal conditions, the route resembles
the letter "Z," with winding turns and at least two near-180-degree
changes. This zigzagging path can add 10 to 20 miles to the 21-mile
straight-line distance from Dover to the French coast. However, if the swimmer
is slower and gets caught in a different tidal change, the route can become
even more chaotic.As
a result the swimmer's route across the Channel is never a straight line.
Depending upon the speed of the swimmer and tidal conditions, the path across much
resembles the letter Z, a serpentine course with at least two near-180-degree
turns, a route that can add as much as ten or twenty miles to the
twenty-one-mile distance the crow flies between Dover and the French coast. But
if one swims more slowly and becomes caught in another tidal change, the route
becomes even more chaotic.This
is why swimming across the English Channel is so difficult and why many
swimmers, despite being so close to success, are forced to turn back. When the
tides shift against an exhausted swimmer, even if they are just a few hundred
yards from completing the swim, the swimmer's strength and energy to overcome
the constantly changing tidal flows may be nearly depleted, risking being swept
away either parallel to the shore or even backward to the starting point. This
reversal can have a devastating psychological impact. Often, the hardest part
of the swim is the final few hundred yards, where the combination of tides,
exhaustion, and cold makes it nearly impossible for the swimmer to reach the
shore.Swimming
across the English Channel is the ultimate test of endurance for both men and
women.What happened to Trudy after she conquered the Channel?Trudy
became the most famous woman in the world at the time. When she returned to New
York, an estimated 2 million people filled the streets to celebrate her
extraordinary achievement. President Coolidge invited her to the White House,
where he remarked, “I am amazed that a woman of your small stature should be
able to swim the English Channel.” The media dubbed Trudy the “Queen of the
Waves.” Trudy received endorsement deals and other commercial opportunities
worth nearly a million dollars.
Source:https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/young-woman-and-the-sea/
She
went on a successful vaudeville tour, showcasing her swimming skills in a glass
tank and sharing her experiences. However, her brief vaudeville career did not
bring substantial financial rewards, as the Great Depression reduced her
earnings despite her popularity. She also appeared in a film, "Swim
Girl," alongside Bebe Daniels, playing herself, but she soon withdrew from
the spotlight and faded from public memory within a few years.In
1933, Trudy fell down the stairs of her apartment building, injuring her spine
and leading to a few years of bed rest. She only regained her health a few
years later and made a comeback at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Trudy had
lost part of her hearing as a child due to measles, and swimming further
worsened her hearing. By the 1940s, she had lost most of her hearing and
focused on teaching swimming to deaf children. Trudy never married. She passed
away in 2003 at the age of 98.Trudy's
record for swimming across the English Channel was broken in 1950 by Florence
Chadwick, who swam from France to England in 13 hours and 23 minutes. A year
later, she swam in the opposite direction, from England to France, in 16 hours
and 22 minutes, becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel in both
directions.If
Trudy's 1926 swim across the English Channel broke gender stereotypes, then in
2013, 87 years later, 64-year-old Diana Nyad, after several failed attempts,
succeeded in her fifth try by swimming 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without a
shark cage. Nyad became the first person to achieve this feat, breaking both
age and gender stereotypes. Details of her journey can be seen in the film
"Nyad" and her autobiography "Find a Way."
The
moment Trudy swam across the English Channel and triumphantly set foot on land,
she broke long-standing gender stereotypes and opened doors for future
generations of women.In
one scene from the movie, after Trudy had gained fame for her swimming, she was
cleaning the shop windows at her father's butcher shop when a group of young
girls approached their hero. They told her that because of Trudy's example,
they also practiced swimming and could swim faster than their brothers.In
the history of sports, it is pioneers like Trudy Ederle who continually push
boundaries and challenge norms that gradually narrow gender inequalities and empower
women equal rights to participate in sports and competitions.Take
marathons as another example. On August 7, 1959, Arlene Pieper successfully
completed the Pike's Peak Marathon, becoming the first woman to finish a
marathon. However, she was completely unaware that she had made history. It
wasn’t until 2009, when the Pike's Peak Marathon committee sought to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of this achievement, that they searched for
her, even offering a reward through newspapers. Ultimately, it was a historian
who located Arlene Pieper and informed her that she was the first woman to
officially complete a marathon.
Source：
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/sports/arlene-pieper-stine-dead.html
In
1967, 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to officially enter
the Boston Marathon with an official race number (though in 1966, Bobbi Gibb
had completed the Boston Marathon unofficially as the first female runner). At
that time, marathons did not allow women to participate because it was widely
believed that women's bodies were too fragile for long-distance running and
that it could harm their uterus and overall health. Switzer had registered
under the name “K. V. Switzer.”On
race day, wearing bib number 261 and with lipstick on, Switzer was recognized
as the only female runner on the course. The race manager attempted to forcibly
remove her from the track and tear off her number, but she persisted and
completed the race. It wasn't until 1972 that the Boston Marathon officially
welcomed female participants. Afterward, Switzer continued running marathons
and established the "261 Fearless" organization, actively promoting
the development of women's marathon running and advocating for the inclusion of
the women's marathon in the Olympic Games.
Although
the marathon was one of the events at the first International Olympic Games in
1896, the women's marathon was not officially included in the Olympics until
nearly a century later, in 1984.Any
societal belief that women cannot or should not do something has proven to be
false, as women have not only been able to do those things but often do them as
well as or even better than men. This is the enduring legacy of Trudy Ederle’s
historic swim across the English Channel.The
table below shows the gender composition of gold medals won by China in each
Summer Olympic Games. Except for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, since the 1988
Seoul Olympics, the number of gold medals won by Chinese female athletes has
exceeded that of male athletes in every Summer Olympics. Notably, at the 1992
Barcelona Olympics, female athletes won three-quarters of the total gold
medals. In the most recent 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the proportion of gold medals
won by female athletes was 61.8%.The gender composition of gold medal winners of China in each
summer Olympic GamesSource: General
Administration of Sport of China
Note: In mixed-gender events, the medal count is divided equally, with each
gender counted as 0.5.
1."She
was partially deaf and felt a bit out of place in the world, but in the water
she felt completely at home. There, she wasn't disabled. For her, swimming the
Channel was like staking a claim to her own identity, a way to find her true
self. She had a spiritual connection to the sea, once saying, "To me,
the sea is like a person--like a child that I've known a long time. It sounds
crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when
I'm out there."
— Glenn Stout, Young Woman and the Sea
2."A
big man, a huge man, with bared teeth was set to pounce, and before I could
react he grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming, "Get the hell out of
my race and give me those numbers!" Then he swiped down my front, trying to rip
off my bib number, just as I leapt backward from him. He missed the numbers,
but I was so surprised and frightened that I slightly wet my pants and turned
to run. But now the man had the back of my shirt and was swiping at the bib
number on my back.
That
was how scared I felt, as well as deeply humiliated, and for just a tiny
moment, I wondered if I should step off the course. I did not want to mess up
this prestigious race. But the thought was only a flicker. I knew if I quit,
nobody would ever believe that women had the capability to run 26-plus miles.
If I quit, everybody would say it was a publicity stunt. If I quit, it would
set women's sports back, way back, instead of forward. If I quit, I'd never run
Boston. If I quit, Jock Semple and all those like him would win. My fear and
humiliation turned to anger."
— Kathrine Switzer, Marathon Woman: Running
the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sports
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