Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World (28 page)

Purely by accident, Helen Wainwright saved her.

In the wake of the Olympics Wainwright was looking for another challenge. At age nineteen and already the veteran of two Olympics, she wanted to cap off her amateur career before turning professional and becoming a coach. Likewise, with another Olympic Games nearly four long years in the future, the WSA needed to do something in the interim that would continue to bring publicity, attract donors, and reinforce the notion that the WSA was still the foremost women's athletic club in the nation. Now that the 1924 Olympics were over, and without Trudy Ederle breaking another record every time she jumped in the water, press coverage of the WSA was beginning to drop off.

The only significant swimming accomplishment in the world open to women not yet dominated by the WSA was the English Channel. For more than a year Wainwright, whom the press started to refer to as Helen "Swimright," had let WSA officials know that she thought she could change that and become the first woman to swim the Channel. Over time she earned the support of both Louis Handley and Charlotte Epstein. Handley, in particular, thought it a worthy idea. He had long pondered the challenge posed by the Channel and was eager to test his ideas. After all, no swimmer of either sex had attempted to swim the Channel using the American crawl—the Channel would prove to be the ultimate test of the stroke Handley believed was far superior to any other over any distance. Wainwright, and not Trudy Ederle, had been the WSA's most consistent swimmer over the last six months, equally skilled in both sprints and longer distances, and in the wake of the Olympics she was in top shape. Handley had recently called her "the fastest girl swimmer in the world," an indication that Trudy Ederle, who had once held that title, now did not, not even in the eyes of her own coach. It was a measure of just how far Trudy's star had fallen, for Wainwright, despite all her talent, didn't have nearly as much experience as Trudy in open water.

In the fall and winter of 1924 and 1925, Epstein began researching precisely what an excursion to swim the Channel would entail, and in January she formally presented the idea before the WSA's board of governors. Clearly and logically she laid out why she thought it was important for the group to support Wainwright and precisely what such an effort would entail—and cost. Using Wainwright's AAU record time of 26 minutes 44⅘ seconds for the one-mile swim as a benchmark, Epstein and Handley told the board they believed that Wainwright could cover the twenty-one miles between England and France in about fourteen hours. By way of comparison the current record holder, Enrique Tirabocchi, who had crossed the Channel in sixteen hours and thirty-three minutes, couldn't swim a mile in less than thirty-five minutes. Epstein and Handley believed that Wainwright might not only succeed, but set a record in the process, shattering the men's mark. If she succeeded, the goals and aims of the WSA would become a worldwide quest, helping the cause of women's equality in every corner of the globe.

The board found their arguments convincing and authorized Epstein to spend upward of five thousand dollars to make all arrangements for the trial. She planned to accompany Wainwright to England in June, where the swimmer would spend at least a month training and acclimating to conditions. If all went well she would swim the Channel sometime in August.

Although Trudy had heard that the WSA decided to send Wain wright to Europe and she was hurt and disappointed at being overlooked, part of being a member of the WSA was being a good sport, and Trudy did not complain. In fact, she didn't even learn of the final decision to send Wainwright abroad until Meg, who still looked out for her younger sister and continued to push her forward, told her. She believed that Trudy was just as deserving as Wainwright to take a shot at swimming the Channel and told her younger sister just that. Trudy thought her sister was crazy, but Meg was much more animated—and persuasive—asking her, "Why can't you at least try? How do you know if you don't at least try?" Trudy had to agree, telling her sister, "Well, you have a point there, you know." Now that the seed was planted, the rest was up to Trudy.

Trudy knew that in her current condition there was no way the WSA could possibly consider sending her to the Channel. But now—for the first time since her victory at the Day Cup—she was being told she wasn't the best, and that bothered her. If she was the best swimmer, well, the Channel would take care of itself. Almost immediately she responded to the challenge and for the first time in more than six months began to show the form that once had made her almost unbeatable.

All the girls who had passed Trudy by now found Trudy catching up to them again. In late January she clipped one-fifth of a second from her American record over two hundred yards in a sixty-foot pool, then finished second by fifteen yards to teammate Ethel McGary in the 500-yard nationals in a seventy-five-foot pool, a sign that although she was getting stronger she still had room to improve. In St. Augustine, Florida, in early February she began to show signs that her career was not over.

She finished second in her defense of her title in the 50-yard sprint, but only after the first final trial ended in a dead heat between Trudy and two other swimmers; in a repeat she lost by less than a foot. Twelve days later she knocked one full second off the 150-yard record, tied the world mark over 220 yards, and then, just a few days later, on February 26, broke it by a full two seconds and then broke the 200-yard record the following day. All of a sudden, and entirely unexpectedly, Trudy Ederle was the best swimmer in the world again.

Meanwhile, it was Helen Wainwright who was slipping—literally. Shortly after defending her national 220-yard title, she lost her footing while getting out of a trolley and tore a muscle in her thigh.

Trudy was training at the City Athletic Club in New York when Meg heard about Wainwright's unfortunate accident. Meg instantly thought of Trudy and rushed to the club. Trudy was still in the pool when her sister, dressed in street clothes, came rushing in and called out to get Trudy's attention, then waved her over to the end of the pool so they could talk.

Hardly able to contain herself, in a rush Meg blurted out that Wainwright had slipped and fallen while getting off a streetcar and had hurt her leg and could barely walk not to mention swim and now, isn't it terrible, just horrible, but she wouldn't be able to train, and if she could train she couldn't stay in shape and if she couldn't stay in shape, well, then, certainly, she couldn't possibly to go to England and try to swim the Channel, could she? So...

"Why don't you go, Trudy?"

The question hung over the pool for a moment as Trudy tried to process exactly what her sister was getting at. She shook her head. "Margaret," she said, addressing her sister by her formal name to make sure she understood that she was serious, "Are you
crazy?
I only swim 220 yards," referring to her most recent competitions and conveniently forgetting everything else. "That's the farthest I've ever raced so far. I could
never
swim across a big body of water like that."

Meg had heard that kind of talk before. That was her sister, always underestimating herself. Had she forgotten about all those hours at the Highlands? How about the Day Cup? She'd beaten Helen Wainwright by miles.

In her best "I'm your big sister and you're going to listen to me so pay attention" kind of voice, Meg knelt down along the edge of the pool and looked her little sister right in the eye, putting her face directly in front of Trudy's so there'd be no question whether or not she could hear her—when she wanted to, Trudy could pretend not to hear with the best of them. "Listen, Trudy," said Meg slowly, enunciating every word. "You are the better swimmer right
now,
" she said with emphasis. "If Helen Wainwright can swim five miles, you can swim six."

Meg stared down at her sister with a look that said "you know I'm right," and Trudy stared back at her sister and knew she had already lost the argument. Meg was right. Meg was always right, and when Meg was right, well, Trudy knew better than to argue. She shook her head, raised her eyebrows, rolled her eyes, and, letting out a big sigh, said, "Oh, is
that
all I have to worry about?" Meg refused to look away and then Trudy, smiling faintly and still looking a bit uncertain, said, "Whatever you think ... okay, okay." Then she turned and started to swim again. She had a lot of work to do.

The press had the same idea as Margaret and soon asked Trudy the same question. "I'm going," she told them, "I'm going." In a matter of days the WSA reached the same conclusion. Although it still hoped that Wainwright might recover and make the trip, Charlotte Epstein approached the board of governors at its monthly meeting in April and asked for authorization to take Trudy to England as well. Adding Trudy to the trip made a great deal of sense, and the added cost was relatively insignificant. The two girls not only could train together, but when it came time to attempt the swim, they could pace each other, and their natural competitiveness was bound to kick in and help each push the other, increasing the chance of success for both. To have two WSA swimmers become the first two women to cross the Channel, and to have both do it on the same day, would be a huge story all over the world.

The board readily agreed. Epstein booked passage for the pair, as well as for herself and her assistant, Elsie Viets, and began making arrangements for accommodations overseas. They planned to train in England then swim the Channel from Cape Gris-Nez to Dover.

To that end she needed to hire an experienced trainer who could make the necessary arrangements and oversee the girls' training while overseas. Jabez Wolffe was the best-known Channel swimmer in England, and Epstein had already made contact with him and was in the midst of negotiating a contract. Bill Burgess, the other obvious choice, was based in France, and Epstein felt that it was better to train in England. Besides, most Channel experts, despite the fact that Burgess's swimmers had been more successful, still wondered precisely how much that had to do with Burgess. After he ushered three swimmers across in 1923, none of his charges were successful in 1924.

Until it was time to leave, both Trudy and Helen Wainwright were placed in the steady hands of Louis Handley. The swimming coach was particularly cautious with Wainwright, getting her back into shape slowly so that by the time it came for her to go to England, her leg would be completely healed.

But just a day or two after the board approved Trudy's Channel excursion, Wainwright slipped again, this time on wet pavement, tearing the same muscle in her leg. Doctors told her it wouldn't heal unless she gave her leg some rest. Swimming a lap in a sixty-foot pool was temporarily out of the question, not to mention trying to swim the Channel.

The young swimmer was crestfallen and withdrew from the trip. "Under the circumstances," she said, "I felt it would hardly be fair for me to allow the club to go to the heavy expense of sending me abroad ... It goes without saying that I am terribly disappointed. For several years the Channel has been my greatest ambition and I hate to lose the opportunity to try it this season." While she hoped to try again at some future time, at age nineteen her competitive swimming career was just about over.

Now Trudy would have to swim alone. But that did not mean she would have the Channel to herself. Already, as spring began turning into summer, other female swimmers planned to beat Trudy across.

Mille Gade Corson, who had tested the Channel in 1923 and promised to return, was, for the time being, left on dry land, caring for her two young children. But while the eyes of the world had been focused on the Olympics in the summer of 1924, another woman, Lillian Harrison of Argentina, had been testing the Channel waters.

Harrison appeared to have all the necessary skills to complete a swim across the Channel. Born to an English father and Argentinean mother, she first gained notoriety in 1923, at age twenty, when she swam across the mouth of the River Plate, a distance of thirty miles across the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay and Parana rivers forming the border between Uruguay and Argentina downstream from Buenos Aires. Not only was she the first woman to swim the river at this point, she was the first person of either sex to do so. Even Enrique Tirabocchi, who had bested the Channel, failed when he tried to cross the Plate. Moreover Harrison had remained in the water for twenty-four hours and nineteen minutes, a remarkable demonstration of stamina even if the waters were many degrees warmer than those of the Channel and the currents and weather conditions far less treacherous.

Training under Thomas William Burgess, Harrison based her Channel crossing in France and intended to swim to England. Unfortunately, her first attempt to swim the Channel in 1924 ended in ignominy. As she gingerly tried to enter the waters along a rock-strewn beach at Cape Gris-Nez in France, she lost her balance, tumbled into the surf, and was tossed by the waves back onto the shore. She cut her leg badly on a rock and was forced to crawl back out of the water, setting a record for shortest Channel swim attempt of all time. But in a later try she had managed to stay in the water for nearly ten hours before turning back.

Despite these failures, in May 1925 Harrison again traveled to France, far in advance of Trudy, to train for another attempt. She was well aware that becoming the first woman to swim the Channel guaranteed a certain measure of fame and fortune.

Yet when Harrison arrived in France, she discovered a Frenchwoman, Jeanne Sion, already in the water. A matronly looking woman of forty-seven, Sion was nevertheless an accomplished swimmer and already familiar with Channel waters. Like Harrison, she, too, had engaged Bill Burgess as her trainer.