Sonja Henie
Ten world championships,
four Olympic appearances, and three consecutive Olympic gold medals
by John Gettings
Norwegian Sonja Henie won her first gold medal
at the 1928 Olympics and at the next three Olympics
no female figure skater could compete with her. Her routine and style set
the new standard for the sport. . At 15 years, 10 months, Henie was the youngest
woman ever to win a gold medal. She held that title for 70 years, until American
figure skater Tara Lipinski, two months
younger than Henie, won gold at the 1998
Nagano Games.
After the 1928 Games Henie went on to successfully
defend her gold medal at the 1932 Winter Games and
the 1936 Winter Games.
Ambitious
as ever, Henie aimed to take her skating career in a new direction—Hollywood.
She said she wanted to do what Fred Astaire was
doing in the movies, only on skates.
She turned professional after
the 1936 Games and by the end of the year saw the
release of her first movie, One in a Million.
That film was
the first of a dozen films Henie would star in over the next two decades.
She also began to gain fame by starring in a wildly popular traveling ice-skating
show. Her Hollywood Ice Review was a spectacle of costumes, music, and skating
that toured the world until the early 1950s.
She died of complications
from leukemia in 1969.
Today, more than
three-quarters of a century after her Olympic debut, Henie's accomplishments
have retained their luster. No woman figure skater since has won
three straight gold medals, and only one (
Katarina Witt in 1984 and 1988) has ever successfully defended her title.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
