Charlotte "Eppy" Epstein (1884–1938) managed the United States Women's
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...
Swimming Team in the 1920s, and founded the National Women's Life Saving League in 1914, and the New York's Women's Swimming Association (WSA), which she led from 1917-1939. Known as "Mother of Women's Swimming in America", she helped enable women to become members of the American Athletic Union, to first participate in Olympic swimming competition in 1920, to wear more comfortable, practical and faster swim suits, to swim distance events rather than solely sprint events, and eventually to obtain the vote. During her time with WSA, her swimmers held 51 world records, and captured 202 individual AAU Women’s National Senior Championships in both swimming and diving.
Career
Epstein was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in September, 1884, to Morris and Sara (Rosenau) Epstein.
In 1914, Epstein founded the National Women's Life Saving League, which offered competitive swimming, lessons, and socialization for female swimmers. That same year she convinced the board of directors of the
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...
to allow female swimmers to register as AAU athletes.
[
In 1917, she worked as a stenographer until she founded the Women's Swimming Association (WSA) with the help of a few other friends. She worked for most of her life as a court stenographer with the Domestic Relations Court in New York City.]["Charlotte Epstein; Was Olympic Aide", ''Brooklyn Eagle'', Brooklyn, New York, 27 August 1938, pg. 7] The WSA became famous for promoting the health benefits of swimming as exercise, and the club would also teach diving. This was at a time when women were not viewed as athletic, and exercise was not considered beneficial to female health. Prior to this, Epstein started the National Women's Life Saving League to help create a swimming culture for women and girls.[ Epstein managed the Women's ]Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...
Swimming Team in the 1920s. She was able to guide many of the WSA members to victory. Swimmers under her management, known as "Eppie's Swimmers," won 30 national championships, while setting 52 world records. A gifted administrator, in 1929, Epstein served as President of the WSA.[
]
Promoting women's rights
She battled for women's suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
, staging “suffrage swim races” with her teammates, as well as battling for emancipation in women's sports campaigning for bathing suit reform, distance swims for women, and more AAU swimming events for women. Epstein served as the team leader for Olympian Gertrude Ederle
Gertrude Caroline Ederle (; October 23, 1905 – November 30, 2003) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. ...
, who learned to swim at the Women's Swimming Association. In 1926 Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
beating the men's time by over two hours.[
]
Olympic and AAU administration
Epstein achieved the official position of Olympic team manager of the U.S. Women’s Swimming Team in the 1920, 1924, and 1932 Games. She attended the Games in 1928, but did not serve as an Olympic official. In the 1932, she was the Assistant Manager of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, the first woman to be formally recognized with the title. She was well known as a spokesperson for female athletes. Though she had been offered to coach and manage the team that year, she boycotted the 1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...
in Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
to protest Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
policies.[ During her career, she was appointed chair of both the U.S. Olympic Women’s Swimming Committee, and chair of the national women’s swimming committee of the Amateur Athletic Union.]
In 1935, Epstein chaired the swimming committee tasked with administering the trials and for selecting the teams for the second Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel known as the Jewish Olympics.[
]
Outstanding WSA swimmers
Louis Handley
Louis de Breda Handley or Luigi de Breda (February 14, 1874 – December 28, 1956) was an Italian-born American freestyle swimmer, water polo player, and coach who coached the Women's Swimming Association of New York and won gold medals in swim ...
, a 1904 Olympic gold medalist in swimming and water polo, coached New York's Women's Swimming Association. The team contained many exceptional women swimmers including Olympians Gertrude Ederle
Gertrude Caroline Ederle (; October 23, 1905 – November 30, 2003) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. ...
, Aileen Riggin, Eleanor Holm
Eleanor Grace Theresa Holm (December 6, 1912Social Security Death Index: HOLM, ELEANOR H. was born 6 December 1912, received Social Security number 559-12-4524 (indicating California) and, Death Master File says, died 31 January 2004
Source: Dea ...
, Helen Wainwright, Adelaide Lambert, Charlotte Boyle, high diver Helen Meany
Helen Meany (later ''Gravis'', December 15, 1904 – July 21, 1991) was an American diving (sport), diver who competed at the 1920 Summer Olympics, 1920, 1924 Summer Olympics, 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics. In 1920 she was eliminated in the firs ...
, and Ethelda Bleibtrey
Ethelda Marguerite Bleibtrey (February 27, 1902 – May 6, 1978), also known by her married name Ethelda Schlatke, was an American competition swimmer for the Women's Swimming Association, a three-time world record breaking 1920 Olympic gold meda ...
. Handley, as well as other American coaches of the period including William Bachrach of the Illinois Athletic Club, advocated a 10-beat kick for each full two strokes of his swimmer's arms. Handley accepted a lower beat count, but approved of increasing the count from 4 kicks per full arm cycle. Many former coaches had considered the American crawl to have originally been designed to have four kicks to one cycle of the arms. Several of Handley's swimmers, including Adelaide Lambert were known for a fast kick, particularly in sprint races.[Warburg, Paul, "Real Struggle Appears to Lie in the Selection of the Yankee Invaders", ''Brooklyn Eagle'', Brooklyn, New York, 5 February 1924, pg. 24]
She died at 53 on Friday, August 26, 1938 at her home at the Hotel Ruxton on New York City's 72nd Street after suffering from illness for close to a year.["Obituaries, Charlotte Epstein'', ''Daily News'', 27 August 1938, pg. 250] She had been serving as Chairman of both the National Women's Swimming Committee of the Amateur Athletic Union, and the United States Olympic Women's swimming committee for the last two years of her life.[
]
Honors
* 1974, inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame
The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...
* 1982, inducted to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Israel
* 1994, first woman inducted into the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
See also
* List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
The International Swimming Hall of Fame is a history museum and hall of fame, serving as the central point for the study of the history of swimming in the United States and around the world.
List of the members of the International Swimming Hall ...
* List of select Jewish coaches
References
External links
International Swimming Hall of Fame Bio, Charlotte Epstein
*
Borish, Linda J., The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Charlotte
1884 births
1938 deaths
Jewish American swimmers
American female swimmers
Jewish American sports coaches
American swimming coaches
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees