Henie, Sonja
Figure Skating
b. April 8, 1912, Oslo, Norway
d. Oct. 12, 1969
A fine all-around athlete, Henie competed in tennis, swimming, and skiing and she also studied ballet before she took up figure skating. The combination of grace and athleticism that she brought to the sport transformed skating into a popular spectacle.
Henie won the Norwegian championship when she was ten years old and competed in her first Winter Olympics in 1924, two months before her twelfth birthday. She finished second in the world championships when she was thirteen, and then won the title ten years in a row, from 1927 through 1936.
She's the only skater ever to win three Olympic title, in 1928, 1932, and 1936. Her first two Olympic victories came easily. Her fourth was much more difficult. Henie announced her intention to retire after the 1936 Winter Games and then found herself in a close contest with a young English skater, Cecilia Colledge. Henie won by just 3 points.
Petite, blond, and button-nosed, Henie proved even more successful as a professional performer and businesswoman. She starred in her own show, the Hollywood Ice Revue, and in ten Twentieth Century-Fox movies. In her first full year as a professional, 1937, she earned more than $200,000. When she died of leukemia aboard an ambulance plane carrying her from Paris to Oslo in 1969, she was worth more than $47 million.