Marthe Robert

Marthe Robert (born 1888) was a Swiss long distance swimmer. Due to their many achievements, she and her sister Cécile Robert acquired a certain amount of fame.
Biography.
Robert was born in 1888 as the daughter of a swimming teacher at Lake Neuchâtel. She started with swimming when she was five years old. She was training with her father and her older sister Cécile Robert in Lake Neuchâtel. All year long, even in the winter. She started with training with a 100 metre at full speed. In 1904 she crosses the lake during a race, a distance of 7.6 kilometres, in 3 hours and 40 minutes. The next year she crosse the lake together with her sister in 2 hours and 50 minutes. In this race she was faster than painter Philipp Ritter. Behind her 15 men gave up.
On 29 July 1906 she competed in the amateur race of the , an open water race over 11.6 kilometres in Paris. It's the second year the race is held, and the first time witn an amateur race. She finished of all categories in 10th position and wins the women's amateur race ahead of her sister Cécile Robert and the French Marie Marvingt. On 26 August, she took part again in the crossing of Lake Neuchâtel. In the storm Robert and her sister are the only ones who finished the race. She wins the race in a time of 3 hours 14.45 minutes. Fourteen other competitors gave up.
In September 1906, she challenges Swiss swimmer Muller. They swam from port of Neuchâtel to Serrières, a bit more than two kilometres. Robert wins the race in 38.20 minutes, 51 seconds faster than Muller. In November, in water of 10 degrees Celcius, Robert crosses Lake Morat with her sister in 1 hours and 3 minutes.
In later years she would compete at the in 1907, 1909 and 1913. In 1909 she is ranked third of the thirteen competitors. In 1908 she crossed the harbor of Geneva.
Next to swimming she walked and cycled up to 100 kilometres every sunday. She worked as a watchmaker.