FOR THE RECORD:  OLYMPIC GAMES: 1924 gold (4x100m freestyle relay), bronze (100m, 400m freestyle); WORLD and NATIONAL RECORDS: 29 (from 1921 to 1925 - in 1922 she set 7 world records in the course of one 500m swim); First woman to swim the English Channel, 1926 (beating all previous times by men).

Gertrude Ederle's two greatest days in swimming were at Brighton Beach in 1922 and in the English Channel in 1926, the first as an amateur, the second as a professional.

At Brighton Beach, Miss Ederle broke seven world records at various distances in the course of a single 500 meter swim.  In England, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel.

Trudy's great Channel swim was 51 years after Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the Channel, had achieved the impossible, and it completely captured the public imagination because such swimming immortals as Annette Kellerman had tried and failed, claiming the feat completely beyond the limits of a woman's strength and endurance.  Gertrude Ederle not only swam the Channel but swam it faster than any man before her.

by Laura Voet, ISHOF Aquatic Center Manager

The time has come for us to dive into the precast concrete fabrication process.

A few pictures from our field trip to Gate Precast in Kissimmee on October 16, 2020.   We were there to select the color and textures for the dive tower and review the construction plans.

See more photos and read Laura's full update on the dive tower.

Past updates from Laura Voet:
October 13th - It is another great day at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex.
The sun is shining.  Walls are going UP!  Foundation piles are being cut DOWN.  More digging in the DIRT! 
We have a great team of dedicated workers led by Hensel Phelps Construction Company working hard for our City.  The concrete fountain slab for the grandstand and pool filtration room was poured last week and this week a team of skilled masons have started on the concrete block work for the pool filtration building walls.  There are 35 piles that will  support the new dive tower over and the last several weeks the foundation team has been laboriously excavating and cutting them down to the correct height.  The entrance building piles are be excavated and the elevator foundation is being formed. 

See Laura's full update from October 13th here. 

Dr. Jane Katz, the 1999 Paragon Award winner in recreational swimming, has joined the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s “One in a Thousand” campaign, which is aimed at supporting the hall of fame during the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When I was in fourth grade, me and my three siblings would get into a car and we would drive to Fort Lauderdale during Christmas, and this went on for decades. It was great because it was the only place we were able to do that as a family and have warm weather. It was lots of fun and you would see the same people and we had lots of swim meets there too. It was so great to swim outdoors and it was so special,” Jane Katz said.