On August 27, 1926, a ticket-tape parade was held in New York City – the largest to that date with two million people assembled along the parade route, including the New York Yankees. They were there to celebrate Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle, who had just become the first woman to swim the English Channel. This movie provides the backstory to that accomplishment.
The daughter of German immigrants, Trudy (Daisy Ridley) grows up in Manhattan where her father (Kim Bodnia) runs a butcher shop. After she recovers from measles as a child, she is still not allowed to swim in public pools so she and her sister Meg (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) learn to swim in the ocean. Their mother (Jeanette Hain) recognizes their love of swimming and convinces a woman coach (Sian Clifford) to let them join her team. Despite opposition from the men in the sport, the woman begin to compete in swim meets. Trudy is soon winning world championships.
Trudy and some other women athletes are chosen for the American team at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, but they do not do as well as expected because their chauvinistic coach, Jabetz Wolffe (Christopher Eccleston), does not let them train alongside the male competitors on the ship over to Europe. Disappointed yet still determined, Trudy decides to swim the English Channel. Once again, Wolffe, paid for by her sponsor, proves to be less than supportive. Trudy decides to gather her own team, including Bill Burgess (Steven Graham) for her swim; he’s successfully swum the Channel and has good ideas for her.
The English Channel is considered to be one of the most difficult swims in the world. The 21 miles from France to England is characterized by cold water, rapidly shifting currents that can move her off-course, and masses of stinging jellyfish. One area near the English coast is so shallow that Trudy’s guide boat cannot accompany her. In the dark she has to avoid getting lost and find her way to the English coast. Even though we as viewers know what is going to happen, the final section of her swim is incredibly suspenseful!
The challenges of the swim, however, are nothing compared to what Trudy faces out of the water, as she trains with a woman coach, tries to find a sponsor to cover her costs, and puts up with the jealousy of other competitors and media scrutiny.
This is an old-fashioned sports biopic that will have your cheering in your seats for its heroine and all the people supporting her. It has the added value of revealing how women athletes have had to cope with patriarchal authorities over the years and how empowering it feels when they prove all the doubters wrong.