Trudy is the English diminutive of Gertrude — from the Old Germanic gar (spear) + thrudh (strength). **Trudy Ederle (1905-2003)** — born Gertrude Caroline Ederle in Manhattan — **on August 6, 1926, at age 19, became the first woman to swim across the English Channel; she completed the 21-mile crossing in 14 hours 31 minutes, more than 2 hours faster than any of the five men who had done it before her**. **She had won three Olympic medals at Paris 1924 at age 17; she swam the Channel partially deaf from a childhood case of measles, and was nearly completely deaf by middle age**. **Tickertape parade in New York drew an estimated 2 million people on her return**. **Honored by Calvin Coolidge as "America's best girl."**
Subject of Glenn Stout's *Young Woman and the Sea* (2009) and the 2024 Disney+ film adaptation starring Daisy Ridley.
Trudy reduces to seven — the number of Channel swimmer.