Gertrude Ederle

On 6 August 1926 Ederle swam from Cape Gris-Nez in France to Kingsdown near Dover, becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel. Contemporary wire reports and Britannica give her time as 14 hours 31 minutes, nearly two hours faster than any of the five men who had crossed before her, over a course that rough water made about 35 miles long. A German swimmer, Ernst Vierkoetter, later crossed faster.

At the 1924 Paris Olympics Ederle won gold in the 4x100 m freestyle relay and bronze in the 100 m and 400 m freestyle. Olympedia records that in 1919, aged 12, she became the youngest woman to set a world swimming record, and that she set nine world records in all, seven of them in a single 500 m swim at Brighton Beach in 1922. Britannica counts 29 national and world amateur records between 1921 and 1925.

After the crossing Ederle was welcomed in New York with a ticker-tape parade that EBSCO's reference article puts at about two million people, and President Coolidge and Mayor Jimmy Walker praised the swim. The same article says her time, which beat the men's record, challenged assumptions about women's physical ability and that thousands of women went on to earn Red Cross swimming certificates; it also notes that the London Daily News and others dismissed the swim as an anomaly or a stunt.

United Press reported that after about ten hours in the water on 6 August 1926 Ederle's trainer, Bill Burgess, advised her to give up because of the conditions, and that she called back that there was 'no reason why I should quit now.' EBSCO's reference article adds that she ignored his demands to stop as the evening storm worsened, and kept swimming after her left leg cramped.

Declining a trainer's advice to stop, twice in one swim, is consistent with persistence; both accounts come from the same tug-side reporting, so the evidence is one episode. Persistence

United Press reported on 7 August 1926 that before the swim Ederle had made her father promise not to take her out of the water until she was sinking for the second time. The report contrasts this with the previous year, when she had protested her trainer's order to pull her out, and quotes her father saying he had intended to catch her the first time he saw her sinking.

Setting her own limit for rescue, in open water, is consistent with a high tolerance for risk; the previous year's collapse shows the same stance could end an attempt. Risk Tolerance

On 18 August 1925 Ederle began her first Channel attempt from Cape Gris-Nez with trainer Jabez Wolffe. Wire reports say she collapsed after about nine hours and was brought aboard by the swimmer Ishak Helmy; later accounts say she disagreed with the decision. EBSCO's reference article says she then found another trainer, Bill Burgess, raised money, secured media sponsorships and trained at Cape Gris-Nez. She made the crossing in August 1926.

Replacing the trainer and arranging money and sponsors herself after the failure is consistent with proactive agency; the account of her motive comes from secondary sources. Proactive Agency