Walpurga von Isacescu (1852 – May 5, 1925), also seen as Walburga von Isacescu, was an Austrian swimmer, the first woman athlete to attempt a swim across the English Channel.[1]
Swimming career
Walpurga von Isacescu attempted to swim across the English Channel on 5 September 1900, a generation before the first woman succeeded at the challenge (when Gertrude Ederle did it, in 1926). She is considered the first woman swimmer to try.[2] Unfavorable weather and tides[3] contributed to her failure after ten hours, and twenty miles.[4][5][6] She announced plans for another attempt in 1903.[7]
As a member of the First Vienna Amateur Swimming Club,[8] she gave swimming demonstrations and participated in races, as when she raced Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman in the Danube River.[4] She swam the Danube River Race in 1902, from Melk to Vienna, in twelve hours, a record that stood until 1916.[9] "She tows her clothes behind her in a water-tight india rubber case," one newspaper explained of her weekly swim routine.[10]
Personal life
Baroness Walpurga was the young widow of a Romanian nobleman when she took up distance swimming.[10] She did not inherit an independent living, but worked as an office clerk at an Austrian railway to support herself.[11]
