Ilona Elek, known also as Ilona Elek-Schacherer (née “Elek"; 17 May 1907 – 24 July 1988) was a Hungarian Olympic fencer. Elek won more international fencing titles than any other woman.Ilona Elek on Encyclopædia Britannica
Early and personal life Elek was born on 17 May 1907, in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary to a Hungarian-Jewish father born Eisler who 1939 converted to Lutheranism and a Roman-Catholic mother. Foiled: Hitler's Jewish Olympian: the Helene Mayer Story - Milly MogulofMemories After My Death: The Story of My Father, Joseph "Tommy" Lapid - Yair LapidThe Forgotten Legacy of Stella Walsh: The Greatest Female Athlete of Her Time - Sheldon AndersonThe Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era - Jessica Amanda SalmonsonNazis, Women and Molecular Biologie: Memoirs of a Lucky Self-hater - Gunther Siegmund Stent She had seven siblings, including two-time Olympic fencer Margit Elek, and her mother died when she was 11 years old.Ilona Elek-Schacherer Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.comChanging Lives: Women in European History Since 1700 - Bonnie G. Smith She graduated from a music school.Век фехтования - Валерий Штейнбах When Hungary entered World War II on the side of Nazi Germany, Hungarian Jews were forbidden from entering fencing competitions, and so Elek and her sister, who was also half-Jewish, were unable to compete until after the war ended.Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics: with a ... - Paul Taylor
Fencing career
Elek competed for Hungary in three Olympiads, winning three medals. She is considered to be one of the greatest female fencers in the history of the sport.
Hungarian National Championships Elek won the Hungarian foil championship in 1946–47, 1949–50, and 1952.
World Championships Elek won the gold medal in women's foil at the World Championships in 1934, 1935, and 1951.For the record: women in sports - Robert Markel, Nancy Brooks, Susan Markel She won silver in 1937 and 1954, and bronze in 1955.
Olympics Elek was the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals in the individual foil competition.
Elek's first Olympic competition was at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, at the age of 29. She won the gold medal in the foil event, the first Hungarian woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics. In the process, Elek, who was Jewish, defeated a German with a Jewish father, Helene Mayer. The bronze medal went to Ellen Preis, an Austrian Jew.
The Games were cancelled in 1940 and 1944. When the Games resumed after World War II, at age 41 she repeated her performance as Olympic champion by winning a gold medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. Ellen Preis again won the bronze medal.Jewish Athletes at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Elek won the silver medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games. After winning her first five matches in the final pool, she was in contention for the gold medal, but she lost to American Maxine Mitchell, and Italian Irene Camber, who won the gold.
Awards She was later awarded the Robert Feyerick Cup and the Olympic Order.
International Fencing Federation In 1983, she was the International Fencing Federation honorary President.Sport and the Emancipation of European Women: The Struggle for Self-fulfilment
Later years and death Elek later was a director of a trade company. She died in Budapest at the age of 81.
See also List of select Jewish fencers List of Jewish Olympic medalists
References
External links Olympic record Olympic site bio