Magda JULIN-MAUROY

Magda Julin was the daughter of a French music producer. With her family she came to Sweden at the age of seven. Julin won the Swedish figure skating championships for ladies in 1911, 1916 and 1918 as well as twice winning the Nordic Championships in 1919 and 1921 and the Nordic Games in 1917. She participated in only one world championship in 1913 in her native Stockholm, placing sixth as the third best Swede. Therefore, her Olympic victory seven years later came as a surprise. It was the only time in history that an Olympic gold medal winner in figure skating was not placed first by any of the judges. Just before her free skating performance she had to change her intended music. Julin had prepared to free skate to the waltz “The Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss. However, she was not allowed to use this music due to wide spread anti-German resentments. She was also four months pregnant when competing in 1920.

Julin worked as a waitress and later first ran a café and then a restaurant until she was 77-years-old. She was married to the sea captain F. E. Julin, who was 15 years older. She had two sons and spent her last years in a nursing home in Stockholm. In April 1990 her last appearance on ice was during the formal opening of the ice rink in Östersund at the age of 95. Magda Julin was buried in Adolf Fredriks Cemetery in Stockholm.