Great Swim

With the rain driving against her goggles, Gertrude stole one or two glances toward the English coast, but it seemed if anything to be receding. 'After that, I felt I had better not look any more,' she said later, 'but just go on swimming as long as I could keep alive.' In the aftermath of the Great War when the world was still trying to bury its wounds, one story captivated Europe and America - the battle between four young women to be the first to conquer the formidable waters of the English Channel. Newspapers from Paris to New York engaged in rivalries nearly as competitive as the swimmers themselves, each backing a favourite which only fuelled the frenzy - Gertrude Ederle and Lilian Cannon, the two frontrunners, were sponsored by tabloid barons who used increasingly titillating photographs of them in their respective papers to drive circulation. But ultimately it was the sheer physical determination and courage of the women themselves, as they battled the weather, the odds and each other, that made this swim one of history's greatest sporting moments.