Sonja Henie (NOR) - European Championships Prague 1934 - ISU Archives

We dusted off the skating archive to show you some of our sports greatest legends.

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To date, the most successful female figure skater by far was the lovely and graceful Sonja Henie (Norway) she was born on April 8th, 1912. Her parents, namely her father, introduced her into the world of sport when she was very young. At the tender age of 6 she took her first steps on ice at the Frogner ice rink with her brother Leif. From an early age, this athletically talented Norwegian girl chose to devote herself totally to ice skating, heart, mind, body and soul. She also brought to this developing sport those rare personal qualities that produce champions: Strong desire, a tenacious will and extremely high aspirations. Still she managed to find time to enjoy ski, tennis, swimming, horseback riding, and even motoring. She took part in the 1932 endurance auto race held in Stockholm. She drove her own Chrysler.

Inspired by the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, she imitated her famous dying swan from the Swan Lake ballet with stunning success. Her inborn predisposition for aesthetic movements were perfected by hard systematic off the ice ballet training. She studied with a ballet master who also taught Pavlova. In Oslo, Norway, Sonja Henie took part in her first World Championships at the age of 12. She finished 5th in a field of seven. But at 14, she earned a silver medal at the 1926 World Championships, these were held in Stockholm. A year later she won the World Championships and remained unbeatable for the next 10 years. She came away with the gold medal in London 1928, Budapest 1929, New York 1930, Berlin 1931, Montreal 1932, Stockholm 1933, Oslo 1934, Vienna 1935, and Paris 1936. An amazing and unsurpassed success in world championships.

Miss Henie did not participate in the first European Championships in 1930. But from 1931 to 1936 she reigns with absolute mastery. She placed 1st in St-Moritz 1931, Paris 1932, London 1933, Prague 1934, St-Moritz 1935, Berlin 1936. But this is not all, representing Norway, she participated in four Olympic Competitions. First in Chamonix 1924, at the age of 12, she placed last. But then in St-Moritz 1928, Lake Placid 1932 and Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936, where naturally she was victorious in all.

The summary of miss Henie's victories borders on the unbelievable: 10 times World champion, 6 times European champion and 3 times Olympic champion. In 1937 she turned professional, she moved to the United States where she starred in her own grandiose ice review, the Hollywood ice review. She also starred in 11 movies including The Sun Valley Serenade filmed in 1941, which is considered to be her best film. In 1940 she published her memoirs in a book entitled "Wings on my feet", and in 1985 another biographical portrayal of Sonja Henie was written and published by her brother Leif with the writer Raymond Strait. These two volumes taken as comparative works makes a very interesting reading.

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