The revolutionary years of the 1920s have many names: the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, and the Era of Prohibition. However, none of these names can truly represent both the rise of and the importance of sports during this time. While music and jazz are associated with the Twenties, sports played a huge role in the average person’s daily life as well. Gertrude Ederle was a female competitive swimmer who revolutionized the concept of sports as entertainment and provided joy to millions Americans as well as others around the world.
Known as the “Queen of the Waves,” Ederle was a strong, yet very small 142-pound woman who made a name for herself through all of her swimming achievements. During her swimming career, she set 29 American and National records. Ederle was known for her appearance in the 1924 Olympics where she won both a gold and bronze medal during the competition, but it was her historical swim across the English Channel in 1926 that helped shed light on the successes of women athletes.
Ederle was the first woman to ever successfully make it across the 21 miles between the coast of England and the coast of the European Mainland. She was the sixth person in all of history to accomplish it, but she went even further and beat all of the previous records (set by men) with a time of 14 hours and 31 minutes—she ended up swimming around 35 miles due to the rough waters and dangerous weather.
Ederle’s accomplishment did not go unnoticed. Not only did she further sports’ significance in everyday life, she provided a lot to her supports: someone to believe in and someone to aspire to be. Ederle was even invited to the white house by President Calvin Coolidge who also referred to her as “America’s Best Girl.” Because of her success crossing the English Channel, Ederle became a household name, alongside other athletes with such honor and prestige, like baseball player Babe Ruth and boxer Jack Dempsey.
During the 1920s, sports were a huge form of entertainment. Athletics and other types of physical activity began to thrive and drew in support from more and more people. However, women's sports did not receive as much attention as men’s until Ederle happened. Ederle changed the way people view female athletes and made it possible for women’s accomplishments to be viewed at the same level as their counterparts.
Works Cited
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Klein, Christopher. "Remembering Long-Distance Swimmer Gertrude Ederle." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 21 Aug. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Severo, Richard. "Gertrude Ederle, the First Woman to Swim Across the English Channel, Dies at 98." The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 Nov. 2003. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Really nice post! I especially liked your connection between Gertrude Ederle and other American household names. It really helps put this information into the context of what we have been learning in class.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog as we often don't think much about sports in the context of overall history. Looking further into Gertrude and the Olympics, I found that all of the women's swimmers in the 1924 olympics which she went to did not return for the 1928 olympics. These olympics in Amsterdam had a full new team of women, and it seemed as if swimming on the world stage was growing because the United States did not get as many medals, and teams like Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa all won medals compared to just United States and Great Britain winning in 1924. I was very curious why no women continued on to the 1928 olympics as is so common in our culture today with swimmers like Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin competing in both the 2012 and 2016 olympics so far.
ReplyDeleteI found my information about the 1928 olympics here:
http://www.databaseolympics.com/games/gamessport.htm?g=9&sp=SWI