Sonja Henie,Norway

 

1912-1969

Dominated figure skating with 10 consecutive world championships and three Olympic gold medals.

With her dimples and soft smile, the petite, blonde Norwegian figure skater was the picture of sweetness and modesty. But Sonja Henie's opponents knew better. Whether on the ice or in the boardroom, the woman who elevated figure skating from winter recreation to spectator sport was a cutthroat competitor and a shrewd businesswoman who was out to win.

Born into wealth, Henie was given every advantage when it came to developing her talent, from private rinks and skating teachers to ballet lessons. (Her artistic style was influenced by Anna Pavlova, the great Russian dancer.) In her first major international competition, the 1924 Olympics in Chamonix, France, 11-year-old Henie finished last. That would never happen again.During the early 1900s, competitive figure skating consisted of compulsory figures and a long program of difficult, unrelated technical movements skated as music played randomly in the background. Henie revolutionized the sport in two important ways: Combining her extraordinary skating skills and her artistic training, she choreographed her programs so that her sits, spins and leaps flowed from one to the other in time with the music. And not only did she skate differently, but Henie also looked different while doing it. The skating outfits of the day ordinarily consisted of long skirts and black skates; Henie wore short-skirted costumes, allowing her the freedom to execute more complicated movements, such as jump-spins. She made white skating boots and fur-trimmed skirts popular.

Henie's 10 consecutive world championships, from 1927 to 1936, and three consecutive Olympic golds, in 1928, 1932 and 1936, will likely never be duplicated. After turning professional, in 1936, Henie went to Hollywood and delighted audiences with her skating, charm and lilting accent in 13 films.

If any of her talents could be said to have rivaled her athletic skills, it was her business acumen. Her most successful venture was producing the extremely popular Sonja Henie Hollywood Ice Revue, which began touring across the United States in 1940 and made her a millionaire many times over. Her personal popularity, in turn, popularized figure skating as a spectator sport in the U.S., which helped lead to the first female world champion from the U.S. (Tenley Albright) in 1953 and the first Olympic woman gold medalist in the sport (Albright) in 1956.

Henie retired permanently from skating in 1960 and shortly after developed leukemia. She died in 1969, at age 57, aboard an airplane that was carrying her from Paris to Oslo for medical treatment.

"She made skating something that every little girl wanted to do," longtime coach Frank Carroll has said of Henie. "She changed the face of skating. There will never be anyone like her."