Gertrude Caroline Ederle (October 23, 1905 - November 30, 2003) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in five events. At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, she won a gold medal as a member of the first place U.S. team in the 4-100 meter freestyle relay. Individually, she received bronze medals for finishing third in the women's 100-meter freestyle and women's 400-meter freestyle races. In 1925, Ederle turned professional and swam the 22 miles from Battery Park to Sandy Hook in 7 hours and 11 minutes, a record time which stood for 81 years. In 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. When she returned home, she was greeted with a ticker-tape parade in NYC where more than 2 million people lined the streets to cheer her. A fall down the steps of her apartment building in 1933 twisted her spine and left her bedridden for several years, but she recovered well enough to appear at the 1939 New York World's Fair. She never married and died in 2003 at the age of 98. Photographed by Bain News Service, undated.