Adelaide Lambert

Early life

Adelaide Lambert was born on October 27, 1907, in Ancon, Panama Canal Zone, to Clarence Kent Lambert, a government superintendent of motor transportation, and Mary Adelaide Howard. Panama was a U.S. protectorate at the time, and she learned to swim there. By age 14, she was living in Cristobal on Panama’s west coast. Her early coach was A. Mitchell of the Atlantic Water Sports Club.

Lambert was recognized for using a fast six-beat kick per arm stroke, mainly in races shorter than 100 yards. Later, at the Women’s Swimming Association of New York, coach Louis Handley preferred a higher kick count but supported increasing from four kicks per full arm cycle, which many earlier coaches had considered the standard for the American crawl. As a youth, she became an all-around Canal Zone swimming champion. At 14, still in Panama, she swam 100 yards in 1:09.4, nearing the American record.

Women's Swimming Association

Adelaide Lambert, a teenage swimmer for the Women's Swimming Association of New York, won a 220-yard handicap race on August 8, 1923, at Manhattan Beach. Sponsored by the International Printers' Tournament, she finished first in 2:51.2. That same year, she held the national 100-yard freestyle title. The Women's Swimming Association, started by Charlotte Epstein in 1917, pushed for women's rights in the sport, including more streamlined suits, AAU membership for women, more championship and distance events, water polo, Olympic competition, and women's suffrage.

On August 24, 1923, Lambert broke the 300-meter record with a time of 4:29.6, beating the old mark by 0.2 seconds, and also set a 300-yard record, winning by ten yards. She became an AAU champion in freestyle, backstroke, and individual medley. In 1924, she was part of several record-setting relay teams: a 5x50-yard, a 6x50-yard, and a 4x100-meter team clocking 5:00 minutes. She also swam on a 4x110-yard relay that set a 1924 record of 4:27.6, a 5x100-yard relay record of 5:35.8, and a 6x100-yard relay record of 6:47.4.

Stroke championships and records

Adelaide Lambert was just 19 when she set a world record at the Women's National AAU Indoor Swimming Championships in Buffalo, New York, on February 2, 1927. She won the 300-yard medley in 4:34.4, shaving two seconds off Carin Nilsson's 1926 mark. By 1927, she had already claimed several AAU outdoor national titles: the 100-yard freestyle in 1923, the 300-yard individual medley in 1925 and 1926, and the 220-yard backstroke in 1926 and 1927.

In August 1926, her winning time in the 220-yard backstroke at Philadelphia's Sequi Lagoon was 3:15. The following January in Miami, she broke American records in the 500-meter backstroke (7:33.2) and the 200-meter backstroke (3:19.8), the latter beating Sybil Bauer's old mark by about seven seconds. She swam for the Women's Swimming Association under coach Louis de B. Handley.

1928 Olympic gold medal

Adelaide Lambert placed third in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1928 Olympic trials, though she did not swim that event in the Games. That year, Charlotte Epstein, who founded the Women's Swimming Association, acted as both chaperone and manager for the U.S. women's Olympic squad. At twenty years old, Lambert was part of the victorious American 4×100-meter freestyle relay team at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. The team, which also included Albina Osipowich, Eleanor Garatti, and Martha Norelius, broke the world record in both the semifinal and final heats.

Lambert swam the leadoff leg in the final, where the Americans posted a time of 4:47.6 and won by a wide margin. Six nations contested the final, with Great Britain finishing second, fifteen seconds behind, and South Africa taking third. After the Olympics, Lambert helped the U.S. Outdoor 4×200 freestyle relay squad capture the national title in 1929.

Did You Know?

• At the 1924 Olympic trials, Lambert qualified but became ill just before the steamship departed for Paris and could not travel with the U.S. team.