Annette Kellerman

Annette Kellerman, born Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann on 6 July 1886 in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress and writer who died on 6 November 1975. A weakness in her legs as a small child led her parents to enrol her in swimming classes, and by fifteen she had mastered all the strokes and won her first race. In 1902 she won the New South Wales ladies' 100 yard and mile championships. At 19 she was one of the first women to attempt to swim the English Channel, and she later performed as a diver and mermaid in aquacade shows on Broadway and at the New York Hippodrome. She was one of the first women to wear a one-piece bathing costume, started her own line of them, helped popularise synchronised swimming and wrote a swimming manual.