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SPEAKER_04: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan,
SPEAKER_03: and this is Womanica. This month we're talking about adventurers, women who refuse to be confined. They push the boundaries of where a woman could go and how she could get there. Today we're talking about the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel. Let's talk about Aru T. Saha. Aru T. Saha learned how to swim on the banks of the Ganges River. She was born in 1940 to a middle-class family in Kolkata. Her mother died when she was around two years old, so Aru T. was raised with help from her extended family. As a child, she would often bathe at Chompa Dalla Gaut, where one of her children was born. She was a young woman who lived in a small town in the middle of the country. She would often bathe at Chompa Dalla Gaut, where wide stone steps led directly into the river. Aru T. took to the water like a fish. Her father noticed and enrolled her in a swimming club. There, she caught the eye of Sachin Nag, an Indian swimming superstar. Almost immediately, Aru T.'s career in the water took off. She won her first gold medal in 1946 at just five years old. Her event that day was the 110-meter freestyle, four laps in a modern-sized pool. Over the next few years, Aru T. kept winning. She became known as a swimming prodigy, unstoppable. In 1948, she won two silvers and a bronze at the national championship. She was eight. In 1951, she broke the All-India record in the 100-meter breaststroke and set three new state-level records in freestyle and backstroke. She was 10. The Helsinki Olympics were on the horizon, and in 1952, Aru T. represented India in the 200-meter breaststroke at just 11 years old. Aru T. had reached a milestone that, for most people, is the height of their career, all before becoming a teenager. When Aru T. returned to India, a new goal began to take shape. In 1950, an annual race across the English Channel had begun. Twenty swimmers from around the world clamored to test their endurance in what was the Mount Everest of swimming. The channel lies between England and France and is 21 miles long if a person were to swim in a straight line from one coast to the other. But they almost never do. Rough currents, bad weather, and icy temperatures can knock swimmers off course for miles. Roaming pods of jellyfish sting your arms and legs, and choppy waves can make you seasick while you're swimming in the sea. In 1958, when Aru T. was 11, the race across the channel had two historic finishers. Greta Anderson became the first woman to win the race. In second place was Broshin Dash, the first Asian person to swim across. Aru T. was inspired. She was an Asian woman who loved swimming and lived for a challenge. If Greta and Broshin could cross the channel, she could too. While a team began fundraising, Aru T. began training. There weren't a lot of bodies of water in India that mimicked the English Channel, so she improvised. She did long swims in the Ganges. At one point, she swam for eight hours in a pond in Deshbandhu Park while fans watched from the shore. The next time, she went for 16 hours. In August of 1959, the time had finally come. Aru T. arrived in France along with 57 other swimmers from around the world. They gathered in Cap Gris-Nez, the closest point in France to England. It was 1 a.m., the dead of night. Waves lapped at the beach's rocky edge. Aru T. was ready, but the pilot of her launch boat was not. He was 40 minutes late. Aru T. had missed a key window of easy swimming. The water had turned rough. By 11 a.m., Aru T. had swum more than 40 miles. She was just five miles from the English coast, but a strong current blew in. She was stuck. Five hours later, she'd only made it two more miles inland. She wanted to keep going. She'd come so far, and she was so close, but the boat's pilot insisted. Aru T. was pulled out of the water. Her race was done. But Aru T. refused to give up. She stayed in Europe determined to swim again, and she did. A little over a month later, on September 29th, Aru T. set out again from Cap Gris-Nez. She swam for 16 hours and 20 minutes and covered 42 miles to emerge on the other side of the channel on an English beach, hoisting an Indian flag. Aru T. had become the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel. Later that year, Aru T. married her manager, Dr. Arun Gupta. In 1960, she became the first woman athlete to win a Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India. But after the fanfare around her swim died down, life became normal for Aru T. She was only 20 years old. She had a whole life to live away from the spotlight. She went to school, had a daughter, and worked for a railroad. She died in 1994 when she was just 53 years old. All month, we're talking about adventurers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram, or on the Hot Womanica podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_07: Evidence-wise, we had virtually no evidence.
SPEAKER_04: In 1995, Detective Tony Richardson was trying to figure out who killed a fellow officer. The case comes down to who is believed and who is ignored. Oh my goodness, we did convict an innocent man. I'm Beth Shelburne from Lava for Good podcasts. This is Ear Witness. Listen to Ear Witness on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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