Micheline Ostermeyer

Micheline Ostermeyer was a French track and field athlete and concert pianist, born on 23 December 1922 in Rang-du-Fliers in the Pas-de-Calais and raised in Tunisia. She was unusually versatile, winning thirteen national titles across the sprints, hurdles, high jump, shot put, discus and pentathlon. At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London she entered three events and won two golds, in the shot put and the discus throw, and a bronze in the high jump, a haul that placed her alongside Fanny Blankers-Koen as the outstanding woman of that track and field programme. She also took silver in the shot put at the 1946 European Championships in Oslo and, in 1950 in Brussels, bronze in the shot put and in the 80 metres hurdles. Away from the track she graduated from the Conservatoire National in 1948 and won several important piano competitions; she is quoted as saying she practised piano five hours a day but athletics only five hours a week. She died on 17 October 2001 in Bois-Guillaume.