At the Hotel McAlpin in Manhattan, New York in September 1927 on a brisk afternoon, the International Professional Swimmers Association was founded. The new organization attracted great fanfare from influential powerbrokers in the emerging sport and included many of the most accomplished swimmers of the 1910s and 1920s. They worked – not easy nearly 100 years ago – hard on their collective passion, issuing monthly publications with the aim to authenticate and maintain records of a professional marathon swims on an international scale.
To understand the excitement of this unparalleled meeting, Gertrude Ederle has just set the overall English Channel record in August 1926 and George Young of Canada had just completed the first crossing of the Catalina Channel in January 1927 in a race of 105 swimmers sponsored by William Wrigley, Jr.. Meanwhile, Ernest Vierkoetter of Germany had won the first Canadian National Exhibition professional race and both Mercedes Gleitze of England and Amelia “Millie” Gade Corson of Denmark had attempted earlier crossings of the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain, but neither of the swimmers were not successful.
Solo channel crossings and marathon races with cash purses were becoming popular from Canada to Spain in the Roaring ’20s.
The International Professional Swimmers Association officers included William Wrigley, Jr. as its Honorary President, Captain George H. Maines as Active President, William Burgess of Dover, England [second person to cross the English Channel], Elwood Hughes of Toronto, Canada, and C. Compton of Long Beach. California as its Vice Presidents, and Lou Timson of Boston, Massachusetts as its Secretary and Treasurer.
Its Board of Governors consisted of:
- Edward Keating of New York
- William Erickson of New York
- Byron Summers of San Francisco
- Lottie Schoemmell of Lake George, New York
- Eva Morrison of Boston, Massachusetts
- Ernest Vierkoetter of Berlin, Germany
- Paul Chotteau of Paris, France
- William Sadlo Jr. of New York
- Ethel Hertle of New York
- Mobile Bill Jackson of Mobile, Alabama
- Leo Purcell of San Francisco, California
- May Elwell of Revere, Massachusetts
- Sam Swartz of Glens Falls, New York
- Captain T. W. Sheffield of Balboa, California
- Johnny Walker of Toronto, Canada
- Olaf Farstadt of Norway
- Ernst M. Smith of San Francisco, California
- Charles Toth of Boston, Massachusetts
- Henry Sullivan of Lowell, Massachusetts
- James Burns of New York
- Edith Hedin of Toronto, Canada
- Harold “Stubby” Kruger of Hawaii
- Georges Michel of Paris, France
- Norman Ross of Chicago, Illinois
- Clarence Ross of New York
- George Young of Toronto, Canada, Associate Member for Life
- Gertrude Ederle, Associate Member for Life
- Millie Gade Corson, Associate Member for Life
Millie had been in New York City for several years after her immigration from Denmark. In June 1921, the 24-year-old completed a 45.9 km circumnavigation swim around Manhattan Island in 15 hours 57 minutes, becoming the third person to do so after Robert Dowling in 1915 and 13-year-old Ida Elionsky in 1916.
Her feat led to an unprecedented 187 km stage swim from Albany to Manhattan Island in New York down the Hudson River that took her more than 5 days with 63 hours 35 minutes of total time in the water. She slept on the shore as needed.
Ned Denison, chairperson of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, described her major accomplishment of her career, “In 1926, Millie completed her English Channel swim 3 days after and 1 minute slower than the overall record holder Gertrude Ederle. The businessman who funded her swim placed a bet at 20-1 odds with Lloyds of London and netted $100,000 (in 2025 value $1.83 million). Her swim further electrified the New York City media which covered them as a pair. Ederle (represented youth) and Corson with 2 young children (represented motherhood). Millie, like Gertrude, was treated to a ticker-tape parade in New York City. There were various media fueled challenges of $25,000 to $100,000 for a match race around Manhattan Island, across the Catalina Channel, or anywhere else.”
She was one of only three swimmers who were selected as Associate Members for Life of the International Professional Swimmers
Association for her contributions to the sport of swimming in 1927.
Now 98 years after her English Channel crossing as the second woman to cross the English Channel, to complete a circumnavigation swim around Manhattan Island, and to attempt a crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar, Millie Corson was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Swimmer in its Class of 1926. She joins Greta Andersen and Helge Jensen as the only three Danish swimmers similarly honored.
© 2025 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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