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Home > Olympics > Gold Medalists > Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie
The Olympic Games, or Olympics, is an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C, the modern games started from 1896.The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent atleast one color of the participating country’s national flag.
Sonja Henie was born on April 8, 1912. Sonja Henie was born in Christiania, and died on October 12, 1969. She was a Norwegian figure skater and actress. She is a three time Olympic Champion in 1928, 1932, and 1936, a ten-time World Champion from 1927 to 1936 and a six-time European Champion from 1931 to 1936. Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater.
She took the gold medal in the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Winter Olympics. She first placed eighth in a field of eight at the 1924 Winter Olympics, at the age of eleven. During the 1924 program, she skated over to the side of the rink several times to ask her coach for directions.
She also won six consecutive European championships. She is credited with being the first figure skater to adopt the short skirt costume in figure skating, and make use of dance choreography. After the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, she gave up her amateur status and took up a career as a professional performer in acting and live shows. She mostly performed in the United States, but had triumphant shows in Norway in 1953 and 1955. In 1938 she published her autobiography, which was republished in a revised edition in 1954. In 1941, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. She retired from acting in 1958 with the film Hello, London. She became one of the wealthiest women in the world in her time.
She won the Awards such as Inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976 and Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1982.
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