More people have conquered Everest than have swum the twenty-one-mile English Channel. Only five men had managed it before American Olympic swimmer, Gertrude Ederle, made an attempt in August 1925. However, early into the swim, her coach, Jabez Wolffe, inexplicably ordered her out of the water. He had twenty-two unsuccessful Channel attempts under his belt and it was rumoured he wanted Ederle to fail. Nevertheless, on August 6th 1926 with a new coach on board, she became the first woman to swim the Channel in 14 hours and 34 minutes, beating the men’s fastest time by two hours. As well as being inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, the Gertrude Ederle Recreation Centre was opened in 2003 in Manhattan in her honour.
Mercedes Gleitze was a bilingual typist and in her spare time trained in the River Thames with a view to swimming the Channel. In 1923 she broke the British Ladies’ record for Thames Swimming (10 hours and 45 minutes) leading Rolex to make her the face of their Oyster Watch. She wore it for her triumphant eighth Channel attempt on October 7th 1927, swimming through fog so thick a fishing boat had to sound its horn to guide her. But her record was undermined when another woman, Mona McLennan, claimed to have swum the Channel days before in a faster time. Gleitze was forced into a ‘vindication’ swim after a media frenzy, failing due to extreme cold. McLennan’s claim was promptly exposed as a hoax and Gleitze’s original record was upheld.
Gleitze went on to achieve many impressive feats, including swimming the Straits of Gibraltar and setting a British 47-hour endurance swim record. Her sponsorship deals allowed her to set up the Mercedes Gleitze Homes for Destitute Men and Women, which continues to alleviate homelessness today.
In 2024, both women were immortalised in films: Vindication Swim (Gleitze) and Young Woman and the Sea (Ederle).