{"id":243244,"date":"2026-03-08T02:00:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=243244"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:21:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:21:40","slug":"iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/","title":{"rendered":"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming"},"content":{"rendered":"

IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day<\/a>. As a tribute to the women who have contributed to, grown and defined excellence in the sport, Swimming World will recognize some of the great women and achievements in swimming history.<\/i><\/p>\n

While we now watch many females compete at the club, high school, college, and professional levels, women have not always had those opportunities. It is important for us to remember and celebrate the many women who have made swimming what it is today.<\/p>\n

Here are five women who changed the sport of swimming:<\/p>\n

1. Women’s Swimsuits: Annette Kellerman (1887-1975)<\/h2>\n
\"annette-kellerman\"

Photo Courtesy: Library of Congress<\/p><\/div>\n

Annette Kellerman<\/strong>, an Australian woman during the early 20th<\/sup> century, made significant gains for women interested in swimming. In 1905, Kellerman became the first woman to attempt the English Channel. Although she failed in her attempts, she became a pioneer for women\u2019s long-distance swimming. Kellerman also entered multiple international swimming races that had previously only involved men.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Kellerman was a leading voice in advocating for a one-piece swimsuit, without bloomers or skirts, for women. In fact, in Boston in 1907, she was arrested for \u201cindecency\u201d for wearing a one-piece swimsuit. In a fateful ruling, a judge granted validity to Kellerman\u2019s arguments that one-piece swimsuits allowed for swimming without restriction. However, the judge ruled that Kellerman should have worn a robe on land to cover up before and after her actual swim.<\/p>\n

2. Women’s Swimming in the U.S.: Charlotte Epstein (1884-1938)<\/h2>\n
\"Olympic-flag-rings\"

Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

Kellerman\u2019s American contemporary, Charlotte Epstein<\/a><\/strong>, worked tirelessly during the 1910s and 1920s to earn women the right to swim competitively. Epstein established The National Women\u2019s Lifesaving League in 1911 in the hope that fewer girls and women would die of drowning, and that more men and women might learn to swim. Further, Epstein fought for women\u2019s swimming to be recognized as a sport by the American Athletic Union, so that women might ultimately compete on both national and international platforms, including the Olympics.<\/p>\n

In 1912, women\u2019s swimming made its debut for the first time at the Olympics, in Stockholm, Sweden. The addition was highly controversial; the American Athletic Union, which did not formally recognize any women\u2019s sports, refused to allow any women to compete in the Olympics. In the end, Epstein was able to negotiate for the establishment the recognition of women\u2019s swimming by the AAU as a sport and the approval of female swimmers in the Olympic Games (albeit with rigid parameters). This landmark decision marked the first time that female American athletes were permitted to compete in their sport at the Olympic level.<\/p>\n

3. Women in the Channel: Gertrude Ederle (1905-2003)<\/h2>\n
\"gertrude-ederle\"

Photo Courtesy: U.S. Library of Congress<\/p><\/div>\n

Gertrude Ederle<\/a><\/strong>, who won three gold medals for the USA at the 1924 Paris Olympics, is best remembered for becoming the first woman to successfully cross the English Channel in 1926.<\/p>\n

Not only did Ederle achieve a milestone for the sport of women\u2019s swimming, but her accomplishment made a significant contribution to the women\u2019s rights movement as a whole. Ederle\u2019s swim was a full two hours faster than any of the five men<\/a> who had completed the channel swim before her, which created quite a statement about the capabilities of women in sport. Additionally, Ederle chose to complete the historic swim in a two-piece bathing suit. Her decision proved to be the first time a female swimmer had worn a two-piece suit in public.<\/p>\n

4. Women Swimming for Fitness: Esther Williams (1921-2013)<\/h2>\n
\"esther-williams\"

Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Esther Williams <\/a><\/strong>is known today for the numerous films that she starred in, as a bathing beauty doing synchronized swimming, during the 1940s and 1950s. However, Williams\u2019 relationship with the water initially began during her younger years, when she excelled at competitive swimming.<\/p>\n

In fact, Williams swam a blazing 100 freestyle that qualified for the Olympic Team. Because of World War II and the cancelling of the 1940 Olympic Games, Williams was forced to shift gears from a competitive career to a film career. Williams worked as an actress with MGM and became famous for her balletic movements in glamorous pool settings scattered throughout her films.<\/p>\n

For the greater public, Williams became the icon of women\u2019s swimming, a fitness activity and competitive sport that had so recently been marginalized for its \u201cindecency.\u201d Because of Williams, everyday women\u2014not just athletes\u2014wanted to swim.<\/p>\n

5. Women Shattering Age Barriers: Dara Torres (1967- )<\/h2>\n
\"Photo

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

Sixty years after Williams\u2019 heyday, Dara Torres<\/a><\/strong> continued to expand the role of women in swimming by competing in her historic fifth Olympics (the most that at any swimmer had ever competed in) in Beijing in 2008.<\/p>\n

Torres, a 41-year-old wife and mother, made headlines by being the oldest female swimmer to ever compete in the Olympics. Just to add to her glory, Torres won the silver medal in the 50 freestyle. She was touched out in the event by a swimmer sixteen years younger than her\u2014Germany\u2019s Britta Steffen<\/strong>\u2014by a mere hundredth of a second. Torres\u2019 feat served to shatter stereotypes that female swimmers could not be wives and mothers and well out of their twenties.<\/p>\n

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming Today, March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day. As a tribute to the women who have contributed to,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":237385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[60606,60605,4496,17738,4662,49359],"class_list":["post-243244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-annette-kellerman","tag-charlotte-epstein","tag-dara-torres","tag-esther-williams","tag-gertrude-ederle","tag-katie-wingert"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nIWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To celebrate International Women's Day, Swimming World honors several women who made significant contributions to the sport.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To celebrate International Women's Day, Swimming World honors several women who made significant contributions to the sport.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-08T09:00:53+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T16:21:40+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"815\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"543\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie Wingert\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Wingert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Katie Wingert\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/646c87340f3ff2f4fba9e0af0fdfb18b\"},\"headline\":\"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-08T09:00:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T16:21:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/\"},\"wordCount\":937,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Annette Kellerman\",\"Charlotte Epstein\",\"Dara Torres\",\"Esther williams\",\"Gertrude Ederle\",\"Katie Wingert\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/\",\"name\":\"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-08T09:00:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T16:21:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"To celebrate International Women's Day, Swimming World honors several women who made significant contributions to the sport.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg\",\"width\":815,\"height\":543,\"caption\":\"Photo Courtesy: Ella Walsh\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/646c87340f3ff2f4fba9e0af0fdfb18b\",\"name\":\"Katie Wingert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06a1a429847638b9cf3060d34f11c938?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06a1a429847638b9cf3060d34f11c938?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Katie Wingert\"},\"description\":\"Katie Wingert is a senior at Messiah College, where she is majoring in English with a secondary teaching certification and minoring in French. Katie swims middle-distance freestyle and IM for the Falcons and serves as an assistant coach for the Annville-Cleona Otters. In 2017, Katie was named the NCAA Division III Elite 90 Award recipient for Women\u2019s Swimming and Diving.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/katie-wingert\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming","description":"To celebrate International Women's Day, Swimming World honors several women who made significant contributions to the sport.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming","og_description":"To celebrate International Women's Day, Swimming World honors several women who made significant contributions to the sport.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2026-03-08T09:00:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-09T16:21:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":815,"height":543,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Katie Wingert","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@swimmingworld","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katie Wingert","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/"},"author":{"name":"Katie Wingert","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/646c87340f3ff2f4fba9e0af0fdfb18b"},"headline":"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming","datePublished":"2026-03-08T09:00:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-09T16:21:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/"},"wordCount":937,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg","keywords":["Annette Kellerman","Charlotte Epstein","Dara Torres","Esther williams","Gertrude Ederle","Katie Wingert"],"articleSection":["Commentary"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/","name":"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-08T09:00:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-09T16:21:40+00:00","description":"To celebrate International Women's Day, Swimming World honors several women who made significant contributions to the sport.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg","width":815,"height":543,"caption":"Photo Courtesy: Ella Walsh"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/iwd-setting-the-pace-5-women-who-changed-the-sport-of-swimming\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"IWD: Setting the Pace: 5 Women Who Changed the Sport of Swimming"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/646c87340f3ff2f4fba9e0af0fdfb18b","name":"Katie Wingert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06a1a429847638b9cf3060d34f11c938?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06a1a429847638b9cf3060d34f11c938?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Katie Wingert"},"description":"Katie Wingert is a senior at Messiah College, where she is majoring in English with a secondary teaching certification and minoring in French. Katie swims middle-distance freestyle and IM for the Falcons and serves as an assistant coach for the Annville-Cleona Otters. In 2017, Katie was named the NCAA Division III Elite 90 Award recipient for Women\u2019s Swimming and Diving.","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/katie-wingert\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo Courtesy: Ella Walsh","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/womens-1500-free-start-2-e1488381877700.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-11hi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606518,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243244\/revisions\/606518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}