Training

At dawn of a morning last week, 17-year-old Gertrude Ederle took to the water off Battery Park, Manhattan, swam for approximately 21 miles (in 17 hrs. 11 min. 30 sec.) until she encountered land at Sandy Hook.

She did this as part of her training course. She is training to swim the English Channel. And, two days later, she sailed for England on the Berengaria to do it.

Said W. O. McGeehan, the best of all sports writers: "It took place very unostentatiously. There were few correspondents. There seemed to be some doubt as to whether this sort of thing came under the head of sports. There was no advance ballyhoo. There were no gate receipts.

"Miss Ederle was attended by her trainer, L. de B. Handley; her father, some officials from the Women's Swimming Association, a few others. She slipped into the water through the mists of the dawn and found that the information regarding the tides was inaccurate. She had to fight the water for two hours. She smiled and struck out for open sea.

"She gave to this thing we call sport a dignity that it never before had known."