Sally Bauer; Swedish Swimmer Crossed English Channel Twice

Sally Bauer, 92, the Swedish long-distance swimmer who crossed the English Channel days before the outbreak of World War II, died Friday in Lund, Sweden.

Between 1934 and 1937, Bauer set 17 national freestyle records in events ranging from the 200-meter freestyle to the mile. But it was her distance swimming that made her famous.

In 1939, she became the first Scandinavian woman to swim the English Channel. She was timed in 15 hours, 22 minutes in difficult conditions. She repeated the feat in 1951 at 43.

Her first major long-distance swim was in 1931 across the 11-mile Oeresund strait that separates Sweden and Denmark. Seven years later she also logged long-distance swims in other Nordic waters.

Carl-Axel Bauer, her only child, said he wants to create a fund for young swimmers at a school named after his mother in her hometown of Helsingborg, 300 miles from Stockholm.