There are countless women competing at all levels of swimming: club, high school, college, and professional levels. There was a time when women didn’t have these opportunities.
Everyone can use a reminder, and young swimmers can learn from the women who have made sport-changing contributions to swimming and made it what it is today.
Do you know who Annette Kellerman is?
She was born in 1887 and lived a full life of 83 years. Annette Kellerman was an Australian woman in the early 20th century. In 1905 she became the first women to attempt to swim the English Channel. And although she failed in her attempts, she did become a pioneer for women’s long-distance swimming. In addition to making the English Channel attempts, Kellerman entered several international swimming races that had previously only involved men.
And even if you knew about Kellerman’s swimming feats, you may not know this: Annette Kellerman advocated for a one-piece swimsuit (without the bloomers or skirts required for women at that time) in
And in Boston in 1907, she was arrested for “indecency” for wearing the very type of one-piece swimsuit that she advocated. In a fateful ruling, a judge granted validity to Kellerman’s arguments that one-piece swimsuits allowed for swimming without restriction. However, the judge ruled that Kellerman should have worn a robe on land to cover up before and after her actual swim.
Maybe you’ve heard of Charlotte Epstein.
Charlotte Epstein, born in 1884, worked tirelessly during the 1910s and 20s, to earn women the right to swim competitively. Epstein established The National Women’s Lifesaving League in 1911 in the hope that fewer girls and women would die of drowning, and that more men and women might learn to swim. Epstein also fought for women’s swimming to be recognized as a sport by the American Athletic Union so that women might be able to complete both nationally and internationally – including in the Olympics.
Epstein was able to see her dreams become reality as women’s swimming made its debut for the first time at the Olympics, in Stockholm, Sweden in 1915. This was highly, highly controversial. In fact, it was only a partial success for Epstein because the American Athletic Union didn’t formally recognize any women’s sports and refused to allow any women to compete in the Olympics. Epstein was finally able to negotiate the recognition of women’s swimming by the AAU as a sport and the landmark decision in the approval of female swimmers in the Olympic Games.
If not, perhaps Gertrude Ederle.
Gertrude Ederle was born in 1905 and spent 98 years loving her sport of swimming. She won three gold medals for the USA at the 1924 Paris Olympics. She also became the first woman to successfully cross the English Channel in 1926.
This was an awesome milestone to achieve for the sport of women’s swimming, but Gertrude Ederle’s accomplishment made a significant contribution to the women’s rights movement as a whole. Ederle’s swim was a full two hours faster than any of the five men who had completed the channel swim before her. And that created quite a statement about the capabilities of women in sport.
Another fact that may not be known about Gertrude Ederle is that she chose to complete the historic swim in a two-piece bathing suit. Her decision proved to be the first time a female swimmer had worn a two-piece suit in public. The National Women’s Lifesaving League in 1911 in the hope that fewer girls and women would die of drowning, and that more men and women might learn to swim.
It’s likely that you’ve heard of Esther Williams.
Born several years after our previously ladies of swim in 1921, Esther Williams is known for the numerous films that she starred in as she was a bathing beauty doing synchronized swimming during the 1940s and 1950s.
Esther Williams began her water ‘career’ during her younger years when she excelled at competitive swimming. She blazed the trail in a 100 freestyle that qualified for the Olympic Team. Because of World War II and the cancelling of the 1940 Olympic Games, Williams was forced to find another way to use her swimming and shifted into her film career. Esther Williams worked as an actress with MGM and became famous for her balletic movements in glamorous pool settings scattered throughout her films.
Because of her fame, Esther Williams became the icon of women’s swimming, a fitness activity and competitive sport that had so recently been marginalized for its “indecency.” Because of Williams, everyday women—not just athletes—wanted to swim.
A current swimming icon is Dara Torres.
More than sixty years after Williams’ heyday, Dara Torres has carried on the torch of women’s role in swimming by competing in her historic fifth Olympics – more than any swimmer had ever competed in – in Beijing in 2008.
Torres, a 41-year-old wife and mother, made headlines by being the oldest female swimmer to ever compete in the Olympics. She added to her accomplishments by winning the silver medal in the 50 freestyle. She was missed the gold by being touched out in the event by a swimmer sixteen years her junior — Germany’s Britta Steffen — by a mere hundredth of a second. Torres’ feat served to shatter stereotypes establish that female swimmers could be wives and mothers, well out of their twenties, and still in top physical condition.
Learn more about the developments of women’s swimming from ancient times to the present by exploring the International Swimming Hall of Fame website.
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