Bleibtrey, Ethelda

Ethelda Bleibtrey, (born Feb. 27, 1902, Waterford, N.Y., U.S.—died May 6, 1978, West Palm Beach, Fla.), American swimmer who overcame a crippling illness to win three gold medals at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp.

Bleibtrey began swimming as therapy to counteract the effects of polio. Because she swam without stockings in 1919, she was given a summons for “nude swimming”; the subsequent public support for Bleibtrey led to the abandonment of stockings as a conventional element in women’s swimwear. By the 1920 Olympics she held the world record in the backstroke. Since the Olympics had no backstroke event for women, she entered the only three races open to women that year. Despite having to compete under difficult conditions in a tidal estuary, she set a world record for the 100-metre freestyle race in the third heat, then set a new world record of 1 min 13.6 sec in the final race. She set another world record (4 min 34 sec) in the 300-metre freestyle. Her third gold medal came in the 4 × 100-metre relay, which the U.S. team won in 5 min 11.6 sec.

Bleibtrey won every national American swimming championship from 50 yards to long distance (three miles) and never lost a race during her amateur career. In 1922 she turned professional. She was credited with rescuing a woman and her two sons in Narragansett Bay, R.I., in 1925. Three years later she was arrested for swimming in the Central Park reservoir while demonstrating for more public swimming facilities in New York City. She spent much of her life teaching swimming to handicapped children.