Inspired by a childhood hero, Eugene woman prepares to swim the English Channel

The library in Jacksonville, Oregon, wasn’t much bigger than Robin Mayall’s living room.

Growing up in the southern Oregon town of 2,000, Mayall loved to do two things: read and swim. So it wasn’t surprising that, as she wandered the library at age 10, a photograph in one book caught her eye.

A young woman in the black-and-white picture confidently strode down a beach wearing a pair of funny-looking goggles and a swimsuit. Her name was Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle, and she was about to become the first woman to swim the English Channel…

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