Florence Chadwick becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions- September 11th, 1951

California native Florence Chadwick prevailed against dense fog, heavy winds, and frigid water to become the first woman to swim across the English Channel in both directions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that uncovers a little bit more about history
every day. I'm Gabelusier, and today we're talking about a

(00:21):
trailblazing athlete who ignored the doubters and swam her way
into the record books. The day was September eleven. California
native Florence Chadwick prevailed against dense fog, heavy winds, and

(00:44):
frigid water to become the first woman to swim across
the English Channel in both directions. She had entered the
water early that morning in Dover, England, and finally stepped
onto the shore of Sangat, France six hours and twenty
two minutes later. It was the fastest time anyone male

(01:06):
or female had ever completed the swim. Chadwick was born
in San Diego in nine eighteen. Growing up in a
coastal city, she spent a lot of time at the
beach and quickly developed a passion for ocean swimming. At
age six, she began competing in swimming competitions, and at eleven,

(01:26):
she won first place in a six mile rough water
race across the San Diego Bay Channel. Two years later,
she won second place at the U S National Championships.
After graduating from high school in nineteen thirty six, Chadwick
went on to study law and continued as a competitive

(01:47):
swimmer in her free time. During World War Two, she
produced and directed aquatic shows for the US military, and
in nineteen forty four, she swam on film with water
ballet star Esther Williams in the MGM musical Bathing Beauty.
Chadwick enjoyed performing, but she knew her true talent was

(02:07):
endurance swimming, particularly in open water where conditions were most difficult.
Her interest in the sport can be credited in part
to her childhood hero, a swimmer named Gertrude Etterly. In
Etterly became the first woman to swim the English Channel,
beating the men's record by two hours and soundly disproving

(02:31):
naysayers who had claimed that women couldn't handle such a
long distance swim. With the shortest route measuring about twenty
one miles, crossing the English Channel was considered one of
the greatest challenges by swimmers of her time. In fact,
even today, more people have climbed to the summit of
Mount Everest than have completed the swim across the English Channel.

(02:54):
Chadwick was inspired by Etterly to be the first woman
to make that trip in both directions, not just from
France to England, as Etterly had done, but from England
to France as well. If you're wondering what's the difference,
most experts consider the England to France crossing to be

(03:15):
the more difficult. That's partly because of the stronger current
pushing away from the English shore, but also because swimmers
have to cross busy shipping lanes when heading towards France,
which means they might have to dodge commercial vessels along
the way. No woman had ever completed that route before,

(03:35):
and Chadwick aimed to be the first. After World War Two,
she took a job with an American oil company in
Saudi Arabia and began training by swimming in the Persian Gulf,
sometimes for as long as ten hours a day. After
two years, she felt she was ready to make the
first leg of her journey, the swim from France to England,

(03:57):
which Etterly had made in ninety six. So on a
cold August morning in nineteen fifty, Chadwick began her twenty
one mile swim to England. She wasn't alone, though, her father,
some friends and swim authorities followed alongside in a fishing boat.
They guided her around hazards on the route and used

(04:18):
a long pole to pass her sugar cubes when she
needed a quick boost of energy. The trip took her
thirteen hours and twenty minutes, a world record and over
an hour faster than Gertrude Etterly. Chadwick's original plan was
to swim back across the Channel to France on that
same day, but in the end she decided to delay

(04:40):
the trip for over a year in order to train
more and to wait for fairer weather. When she finally
did make her landmark crossing in September nineteen fifty one,
she became a celebrity. Overnight. The city of San Diego
gave her a car and threw a parade and her honor.
She got endorsed and deals from swimwear companies. She even

(05:02):
made TV appearances on shows like What's My Line. But again,
Chadwick was a competitor at heart. She quickly found herself
back in the water on July four, nine fifty two,
when she attempted to swim across the Catalina Channel between
the coast of southern California and Catalina Island. She swam

(05:23):
for almost sixteen hours that day, but in the end
she called it quits just half a mile from the shore. However,
Chadwick didn't let that failure get her down. Just two
months later she tried the swim again, and that time
she made the trip to Catalina in thirteen hours forty
seven minutes, two hours faster than the previous record, which

(05:46):
was set by a man. Although Chadwick is largely remembered
for her pioneering swims, her determination and perseverance are just
as noteworthy. She continued to break records in her sport
throughout the nineteen fifties, and even when her failures outnumbered
her successes, she never lost the will to get back
in the water and keep on swimming. After retiring from

(06:10):
the sport in nineteen sixty, Chadwick opened swimming schools in
New York and New Jersey, where she coached a new
generation of athletes. Ten years later, she was inducted into
the International Swimming Hall of Fame in She passed away
in her hometown at the age of seventy six. In

(06:31):
a fitting end to her life, her ashes were scattered
in the Pacific Ocean. I'm Gabe Louisier and hopefully you
now know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. If you have any comments or suggestions for
future episodes, you can send them my way at this
day at i heeart media dot com. Thanks as always

(06:54):
to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you
for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for
another day in History class. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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