Photo by IOC Olympic Museum, Switzerland [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• FIGURE SKATER​
• Began skating at 6 years old -- won her first championship at age 10, and her first gold medal at 15
• Nicknamed the "Ice Queen of Norway" and the "White Swan"
• FIRST figure skater to: 
  • choreograph her movements with the music, rather than simply using the music as background noise
  • wear a skirt above the knee
• Won ten world championships in a row, and six European Championships
• Three-time Olympic gold-medalist
• Starred in thirteen films, as well as a touring show called the Hollywood Ice Revue
• Cofounded an art museum, the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, with her husband, Niels Onstad

Not So Awesome

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Henie gave Hitler the Nazi salute and said "heil Hitler" when he arrived to watch her practice, and when he invited her and her parents to lunch, they accepted. Because of these actions, many accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer, while others said she was not making a political statement but simply accommodating local customs and being polite. Henie did film an anti-Nazi movie in 1939, and after Pearl Harbor she donated to the Norwegian war effort, but questions still remain about her true feelings on Hitler and the Nazi movement.

Bibliography: Allen, Kathy. Girls Race! Amazing Tales of Women in Sports. North Mankato: Capstone Press, 2014. Print.
Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.
Finn, Natalie. (2019, March 22). Cold as Ice: The Biggest Scandals in Figure Skating History. https://www.eonline.com/ap/news/1026016/cold-as-ice-the-biggest-scandals-in-figure-skating-history
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Sonja Henie and Niels Onstad. http://hok.no/en/about/art-centre/sonja-henie-and-niels-onstad

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