Ilona Elek

Ilona Elek-Schacherer, (May 17, 1907 – July 24, 1988), born in Budapest, Hungary, was a Hungarian Olympic fencer.

Elek won more international fencing titles than any other woman. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002621/Ilona-Elek]

Fencing career

Scharerer-Elek competed for Hungary in three Olympiads, winning three medals. She is considered one of the greatest female fencers in the sport's history.

Hungarian National Championships

Scharerer-Elek was the Hungarian foil champion in 1946-47, 1949-50, and 1952.

World Championships

Besides her Olympic triumphs, she was very successful at the World Championships, capturing the gold medal in women's foil in 1934, 1935, and 1951 (at the age of 44). She also won the silver medal in 1937 and 1954, and the bronze in 1955.

In 1937 Elek lost the world championship in Paris to Helene Mayer.

Olympics

Elek was the only woman to win two Olympic gold medals in the individual foil competition. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002621/Ilona-Elek]

Elek won the foil event gold medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, becoming the first Hungarian woman to win Olympic gold. In the process, Elek defeated a German Jew, Helene Mayer, who was one of only two Jews allowed to compete for Germany by the Nazis. The bronze medal went to Ellen Preis, an Austrian Jew.

She was already 29, and had never competed in the Olympics before.

There were no Games in 1940 or 1944 during World War II.

When the Games resumed after World War II, at age 41 she repeated her as Olympic champion by winning a gold medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. It marked the 5th Olympics in a row that a Jewish woman had won the gold medal in foil. She became one of only two women to repeat as champions in 1948. Her sister, Margit Elek, placed 6th at the London Games. Ellen Preis again won the bronze medal. [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd068.htm ]

She then went on -- at the age of 45 -- to win the silver medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games. She appeared headed for a 3rd consecutive gold medal, winning her first 20 bouts, but after winning her first 5 matches in the final pool, she seemed to run out of energy, losing to Maxine Mitchell, and then two consecutive 4-3 matches to Irene Camber of Italy; the second of which was for the gold medal.

External links

* [http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=ELEKILO01 Olympic record]
* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/heroes/bio_uk.asp?par_i_id=3662 Olympic site bio]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002621/Ilona-Elek Britannica bio]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/Olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=226 Jews in Sports bio]
* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd068.htm Holocaust Museum photo]
* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/multimedia/photo_uk.asp?EntIdProv=3738&EntId=3765&LinkName=ILONA+ELEK&Direct=0 '36 Olympics photo]