The First Record Breakers 5/7: They Said No Woman Could Swim the Channel. She Beat Every Man by 2 Hours (1926)

Tales of Life: Ordinary People, Extraordinary True Stories · Nov 4, 2026 · 5m

The First Record Breakers, Episode 5 of 7. In 1926 many people believed a woman could never swim the English Channel. Five men had done it. Gertrude Ederle, a 20-year-old butcher's daughter from New York and an Olympic champion, had already been pulled out of the sea on her first try in 1925. On 6 August 1926 she set off again from Cap Gris-Nez, covered in grease, through rough waves and jellyfish. About fourteen and a half hours later she walked ashore in England: the first woman to swim the Channel, and almost two hours faster than any man before her. Two million people welcomed her home…