Paulus, Emile

Emile Paulus (September 5 1862 Paris – February 27 1938 Saint-Maur-des-Fosses).

French swimmer, who won the first Paris swim crossing in 1905, and failed in his attempt to cross the English Channel in 1908.

Practicing amateur swimming as a sports pastime, Emile Paulus worked as a bank clerk in 1894 and later as a merchant in 1896. In 1905, he ran an “important hat makers” in Paris before working as a sales representative in 1929 .

Paulus was the first French swimmer to practice over arm stroke.

In 1887 he won the International Championship of Le Havre, over a distance of 1,200 meters. In 1893 he beat Englishman A.G. France over 2,650 meters.

Paulus won in 1905, at the age of 44, the first crossing of Paris, a race of 12 km where competitors included the Englishman Bill Burgess and Australian Annette Kellerman. He was fourth in the 1906, 1907 and 1917 competitions.

August 25 1907 he won the six-hour swimming race organized by the newspaper L’Auto in Joinville-le-Pont

August 12 1908 he started from Dover to swim across the English Channel but gave up after swimming 20 km from the English coast.

Two of his sons were also high-level swimmers: René Jean Edmond Paulus, born 1894, in August 1911 finished second in the championship of the professional mile (ancestor of the 1500 meters) and second in the hour championship. He then competed at the French Championships professional swimming in Joinville in 1912.  As a sergeant in the artillery, he died of war wounds on September 24 1918; Georges Paulus, born 1896, won the French men’s swimming record in the 100m freestyle in 1919 and became French champion in the 100 meters and the 300 meters freestyle. He was selected as a swimming competitor at the 1924 Summer Olympics . He was killed in an accident in July 1937

Swims by Paulus, Emile

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