Today, 56 years ago, Sonja Henie died, the once most successful figure skater in the world, who also pursued a career in Hollywood after her sports career. The self-confessed exceptional talent was also courted by the Nazis and had a reputation as an ice-cold beast – which was probably also based on the outdated image of women of her time.
Three Olympic victories, ten world championships and six European championship titles: In figure skating, there is still no one who comes close to her.
Sonja Henie was the measure of all things in her sport, a dazzling myth of winter sports – which became even greater when she also pursued a career in Hollywood afterwards.
The “Pavlova of the Ice,” as Henie was called in reference to the ballet icon Anna Pavlova, was, however, also a controversial figure – not only because she also allowed herself to be courted by the regime in Nazi Germany.
Today, 56 years ago, the legend died after a serious illness.
From “Miss Oops” to Legend
The Norwegian Henie, born on April 8, 1912, was born with sporting talent: Her father Wilhelm, a furrier by trade, was a track cycling world champion and also a top-level speed skater. Daughter Sonja followed in his footsteps early on.
Already at the age of eleven, Henie made her Olympic debut in Chamonix in 1924. The competition – unsurprisingly – came too early. During her free skate, she lost her thread several times and had to ask her coach what she should do next. It is also recorded that she exclaimed “Hoppla” after a fall, which earned her the derogatory nickname “Fräulein Hoppla”.
In Berlin, she was called “Häseken” after Henie, at the age of 14, wore a rabbit’s foot around her neck as a good luck charm during a performance at the Sportpalast and the Berlin original Reinhold Habisch – nicknamed “Krücke” – called out to her: “Kiek mal, det Häseken”.
Three Olympic Victories in a Row
But “Häseken” then got serious: After having to settle for world championship silver in 1926, she stood on the top podium at the following ten world championships.
At the Olympics, she became the youngest Winter Olympic champion in an individual discipline up to that point in 1928 in St. Moritz at 15 years and 315 days – a record that was only broken in 1998 by the American figure skater Tara Lipinski.
Further triumphs followed in 1932 in Lake Placid and in 1936 at the games staged by the Nazis in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, making her to this day the only female figure skater to have celebrated three Olympic victories in the ladies’ competition. Apart from Henie, only Katarina Witt has won Olympic gold more than once in a row.
Sonja Henie won her third Olympic gold medal in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Adolf Hitler did not miss the opportunity to hang the gold medal around the neck of the blonde Norwegian – who fit wonderfully into his Aryan racial ideal. Henie also allowed much proximity to the Nazi regime beyond that, which many Norwegians held against her long after the war: Hitler even invited Henie and her parents to the Berghof in Obersalzberg for a meal and gave her a photo with his autograph and dedication.
Henie Was Ahead of Her Time
But the third Olympic victory was not the highlight for Henie, but the starting shot of her actual career. Only a few months after the triumph in Garmisch, she signed a highly lucrative contract with the US film production company 20th Century Fox, proving to be extremely business-savvy.
Henie insisted that her name appear above the title already in her first film and received a fee of 125,000 dollars. The long-term contract made her one of the highest-paid actresses in the world overnight.
Sonja Henie’s first film “One in a Million”
After the success of her first film “One in a Million,” during which she met Joseph Goebbels on the occasion of the premiere in Germany, Henie’s status was confirmed and she became increasingly demanding in her business relationships with producer Darryl F. Zanuck. She insisted on having total control over the ice skating numbers she performed in the film.
Her success was resounding: From 1937 to 1948, twelve successful ice revue films were made in Hollywood, choreographed by the diva herself and starring her.
Overall, Henie was always ahead of her time: Even as a teenager, she revolutionized figure skating with her style and – although strictly forbidden due to her amateur status – already then capitalized financially on her skills. As a revue and Hollywood star, she later earned millions.
Henie made many headlines with her love life, she had affairs with her ice partners Jack Dunn and Stewart Reburn, boxing legend Joe Louis, and the actors Tyrone Power and Van Johnson.
The emancipated self-confidence with which Henie went through life naturally earned her a mixed reputation in the old-fashioned men’s world.
Obsessed with Money and Sex?
After her death on October 12, 1969, her biography Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows caused a sensation, which her brother Leif wrote together with Hollywood insider Raymond Strait . Henie was portrayed therein as obsessed with money and sex, as a woman who would walk over dead bodies to achieve her goals.
Sonja Henie ended her athletic career after her third Olympic victory in 1936
A nuanced picture was painted a few years ago by Ansgar Molzberger in a portrait of Henie on Deutschlandfunk : “With a man, one might have said he advanced his career, and in the image of women of that time, it is then said that this was done with elbows and ruthlessly. So it is always said that she had already amassed a fortune of approximately 50 million dollars at that time. And I probably don’t achieve that by always being nice and good and considerate to everyone, so I have to, as we say so nicely today, do my thing.”
On October 12, 1969, Sonja Henie’s life ended at the age of only 57: She had contracted leukemia and her condition worsened during a trip to Paris. She died on a plane that was supposed to take her to a hospital in her Norwegian homeland.
Sonja Henie and her husband, the art dealer Niels Onstad, are buried in Oslo on a hill near the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, an art museum founded shortly before Henie’s death that today holds international rank.