Glenn Stout

With the rapid rise of interest in women’s sports and to tie in with the 2024 Paris Olympics, Young Woman and the Sea is uniquely timely, relating how Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel back in 1926. Stubbornly defying the rampant sexism that surrounded her, the rest, as they say, is history, culminating in Trudy’s courageous 21-mile crossing from coastal France to Dover, England – beating off thousands of stinging red jellyfish – in 14 hours, 31 minutes, besting the world record previously set by men.

Anyone who says, “They don’t make movies like that anymore” should see Young Woman and the Sea. This rousing old-fashioned sports biopic has rich characters and relationships that make the triumph of the first woman to swim across the English Channel truly soar. Trudy Ederle crossed the channel in 1926, an achievement all the more remarkable for the era’s limited technology and overwhelming sexism. As Trudy, Daisy Ridley (Magpie) radiates plucky intelligence, impish humor, and an athlete’s determination, aided by an all-around charming cast.

Young Woman and the Sea profiles the great Trudy Ederle. Based on an inspirational true story, Norwegian director Joachim Rønning’s Young Woman and the Sea chronicles American swimmer Trudy Ederle who, in 1926, became the first woman to swim the twenty-one mile English Channel from Cape Gris-Nez, France, to Kingsdown, Kent. Based on Glenn Stout’s book, the story begins in 1914 New York with the General Slocum steamship fire.