It was 3 a.m. on Oct. 5, 1958, when Greta Andersen emerged from the icy surf onto the seaside at Emerald Bay, on Catalina Island off the California coast, bleeding, bruised and numb with chilly, as The Los Angeles Times reported a yr later.
She had been within the water for almost 27 hours and swum greater than 46 miles, turning into the primary individual to swim spherical journey from the island to Long Beach. Her husband, John Sonnichsen, had adopted her in a rowboat. When they met up on the cabin cruiser that ferried them dwelling within the pre-dawn hours, he was already quick asleep.
Ms. Andersen, a Danish-born Olympic champion and elite swimmer who then discovered better fame as a star of long-distance open water swimming — typically besting her male rivals — died on Feb. 6 at her dwelling in Solvang, Calif. She was 95.
Her demise, from unknown causes, was introduced by the World Open Water Swimming Association.
Ms. Andersen, who broke 18 world marathon information, has been referred to as the best feminine swimmer in historical past, in line with Bruce Wigo, former president of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, which honored her with its lifetime achievement award in 2015. “She often beat all of the men,” he mentioned.
But within the quaint newspaper parlance of her instances, she was extra typically described because the Danish mermaid, a housewife from Long Beach, a Danish pastry or a very Great Dane.
She was the primary lady to finish 5 crossings of the English Channel and the primary to win the race throughout it twice in a row, which she did in 1957 and 1958. (The first lady to swim the English Channel was Gertrude Ederle, a New Yorker born to German immigrants, who did so in 14½ hours in 1926, breaking the information of the 5 males who had preceded her.)
In its heyday at midcentury, open water swimming drew 1000’s of spectators. Women and males swam head-to-head in races all around the world. Then as now, the races have been punishing and harmful. Competitors battled swift tides, sturdy currents, huge waves, chilly water, all method of wildlife — sharks, jellyfish and even whales — seasickness and the darkish.
It could be soul crushing, mentioned Ned Denison, chairman of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, when the solar units.
When Ms. Andersen made her second crossing of the English Channel in 1958, her passage was particularly brutal. She was seasick and dizzy by the fourth mile — the channel is about 21 miles large, however tides and cross currents can add to the space — and as she neared the coast of Dover, a strong present held her captive.
It took her an hour and a half to cowl the final 300 yards.
“I felt like giving up,” she instructed The Associated Press, “but my husband chalked on a blackboard to me to read, ‘Hi Greta, you can’t give up. All the other girls are still in there swimming.’”
She was the one lady to complete that day, Mr. Denison mentioned. Of the 29 swimmers who competed, solely 5 made it: Ms. Andersen was first, finishing the swim in 11 hours and one minute, greater than 4 hours forward of her nearest competitor. She was adopted by 4 males, considered one of whom was disqualified for popping out of the water within the incorrect place.
Yet Ms. Andersen was disenchanted, having are available about 10 minutes shy of the world report, set by an Egyptian swimmer, Hassan Abdel Rehim, in 1950.
She had come late to the game, having realized to swim as a youngster at the top of the Nazi occupation of her nation in 1945. She was a pure, capable of swim 50 meters with out respiratory — she typically mentioned it was as a result of she didn’t know any higher.
Ms. Andersen was already a star at dwelling when she represented Denmark at the 1948 Olympics in London, the primary video games to be held after the 12-year hiatus attributable to the conflict. There, she received a gold medal within the 100-meter freestyle and a silver within the 400-meter relay.
She almost drowned, nevertheless, in one other race, the 400-meter freestyle. The crew physician had given her an injection to forestall her interval; she mentioned later that she had no concept what was within the syringe. It almost killed her. Just as she was nearing the top of the race, she fainted, plummeting to the underside of the pool.
She returned dwelling a celeb, and continued to interrupt information, setting a world report for the 400-meter in 1949. She competed within the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, however she had had knee surgical procedure to take away cysts and didn’t win a medal.
Ms. Andersen was a champion but in addition a realist. She had earned glory, flowers and, as soon as, she mentioned, a bicycle, however there was no cash in it. So in 1953 she immigrated to the United States to search for alternatives. Open water swimming, also called marathon swimming, might be profitable, with prizes of about $3,000 (about $33,000 at the moment), and she or he settled in Long Beach to pursue it.
Greta Marie Andersen was born May 1, 1927, in Copenhagen, to (*95*) and Charlotte Andersen. Her father had been a gymnast who received a silver medal within the 1906 Intercalated Games, a sort of interim Olympics held in Athens.
Greta was 12 when within the spring of 1940 the Nazis occupied Denmark. Her dad and mom feared she could be raped by the German forces, in order that they chopped off her hair and dressed her as a boy for the 5 years of the occupation. Afterward, her father inspired her to be taught to swim in a local people pool. A former Olympian, Else Jacobsen, noticed her expertise and have become her coach.
Her marriage to Mr. Sonnichsen, a highschool soccer coach who had been her coach, led to divorce, as did an earlier marriage to Helge Jeppesen, a Danish engineer. She is survived by her husband, Andre Veress, a health care provider.
For many years, she ran a swimming faculty and well being spa in Los Alamitos, Calif., educating swimming to college students of all ages.
Ms. Andersen was largely undefeated, with one notable exception: the Molokai Channel — in any other case often known as the Kaiwi Channel, or the Channel of Bones — a punishing crossing of 27 miles between the islands of Molokai and Oahu, Hawaii.
Ms. Andersen tried it twice, in January and April of 1961. On her second swim, which she started simply after midnight, she battled sharks — she swam for a time in a specifically designed cage — and was bumped by porpoises. She was swamped by 20 foot waves, and stricken with seasickness. There have been rain squalls. But it was the present that bested her ultimately. She fought it for 9 hours, till her crew pulled her from the water at 11:06 that night, nonetheless 9½ miles from Oahu. She had been swimming for almost 24 hours.
As at all times, she had drawn an awe-struck crowd, within the water and on shore.
One observer likened her stroke “to watching a gandy dancer drive railroad spikes,” The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported. And Rip Yeager, the captain of a yacht that was a part of her assist crew, declared, “I take my hat off to her. That woman has more courage than most 10 men I’ve seen. She’s got just plain guts. She’s a real woman in every sense.”
Sheelagh McNeill contributed analysis.
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