Jeannette Altwegg

Jeannette Altwegg was an accomplished tennis player who made it to the junior finals at Wimbledon in 1947. Her real sporting strength, however, was figure skating.

She first competed in the Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz in1948, when she was 18 years old, earning  a bronze medal behind Barbara Ann Scott of Canada and Eva Pawlik of Austria.

By 1951, Altwegg had risen to become European and world champion. The following year, just eight days before the 1952 Olympic Winter Games in Oslo, Norway, she defended her European championship. At the Oslo Winter Games, Altwegg built a huge lead during the compulsory figures and then held on to win the gold medal as she earned the overall first place votes of six of the nine judges despite placing fourth in the free skate.  

As an Olympic champion, Jeannette Altwegg was offered large sums of money to turn professional and perform in ice shows. Instead she retired from skating, moved to Switzerland and took a low-paying job working with war orphans.