Helene MAYER

Helene Mayer was the daughter of a doctor who learned to fence at the "Offenbacher Schule" of “Cavaliere” Arturo and his son Fritz Gazzera. She won her first German Championship in foil in 1924 when she was only 13, and by 1930, had been a six-time German Champion. In 1928 she won the Italian Championship and in 1929 and 1931 she won the European Foil Championships, the forerunner of the World Championships. In 1933 her club excluded her because she was "half Jewish". Mayer left Germany at the time, because of their treatment of Jews, and settled in the United States, eventually winning the US foil title eight times (1934-35, 1937-39, 1941-42, and 1946). Competing for Germany she added a third World Title in 1937, when the event was called World Championships for the first time, and also won a silver medal with the German foil team. Mayer won the gold medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics in the individual foil, came in fifth at the 1932 Los Angeles Games, and added another silver medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.