Helene Mayer

Helene Mayer was a German fencer, born on 20 December 1910, who won the gold medal at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam and the silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Of Jewish descent, she was forced to leave Germany in 1935 and settle in the United States, yet she competed for Nazi Germany in Berlin and was the only German athlete of Jewish origin to win a medal there. She gave the Nazi salute on the podium, and her legacy remains clouded: some call her a traitor and opportunist, others a tragic figure used by the regime and the International Olympic Committee. She later became a nine-time United States champion, returned to Germany in 1952 and died of breast cancer on 10 October 1953.