Micheline Ostermeyer (23 December 1922 – 17 October 2001) was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

, and

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full-time pianist for fifteen years and then turned to teaching afterwards.

Biography

A great-niece of the French author

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

and a niece of the composer Lucien Laroche, Ostermeyer was born in

Rang-du-Fliers Rang-du-Fliers () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Rang-du-Fliers is located on the Côte d'Opale (the Opal Coast), 4 miles (6 km) from the beach and 5 miles (8 km) sout ...

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

. At the insistence of her mother, she began learning piano at the age of 4, and at 14 she left her family's home in Tunisia to attend the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

. After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she moved back to Tunisia where she performed a weekly half-hour piano recital on

Radio Tunis Radio Tunis called Tunisian National Radio ( ar, الإذاعة الوطنية التونسية) or Radio of Tunisia (), founded in October 1938, is the primary radio station of Tunisia whose offices are located at Tunis. History Backgroun ...

. It was during her return stay in Tunisia that Ostermeyer began participating in sports, competing in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

events. After the war, she continued her participation in athletics while resuming her education at the Conservatoire. She competed in a range of contests, eventually winning 13 French titles in running, throwing, and jumping events. In 1946, she placed second in the shot put at the

European Athletics Championship The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics (sport), athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, as well as winning the Prix Premier at the Conservatoire. The 1948 Summer Olympics were Ostermeyer's finest hour as an athlete. She won

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

s in the shot put and discus throw (despite having picked up a discus for the first time just a few weeks before the event), and a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

in the high jump. She is the first French woman to win an Olympic medal in athletics. Her performance was overshadowed only by that of Dutch

Fanny Blankers-Koen Francina "Fanny" Elsje Blankers-Koen (26 April 1918 – 25 January 2004) was a Dutch track and field athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She competed there as a 30-year-old mother of two, earn ...

, who won four gold medals at the same London Olympiad. After winning the shot put, Ostermeyer concluded the day with an impromptu performance of a Beethoven concert at her team's headquarters and a concert at

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

. She retired from sports in 1950 after having won two bronze medals at that year's European Championships and continued to pursue a career in music. Her athletic prowess damaged her reputation as a concert pianist, however, and she even avoided playing anything composed by

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

for six years because she considered him too "sportif".Micheline Ostermeyer
sports-reference.com She toured for fifteen years before personal commitments, including the death of her husband, led her to take a teaching job, a post she held until her retirement in the early 1980s. In her final years, she emerged from retirement to give a series of concerts in both France and Switzerland before her death in

Bois-Guillaume Bois-Guillaume () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography The town is a wealthy, residential hilltop suburb of Rouen, semi-rural, semi-suburban with a little farming and some light indust ...

. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Ostermeyer was inducted into the Olympians for Life project.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Official International Olympic Committee profile of Micheline Ostermeyer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostermeyer, Micheline 1922 births 2001 deaths Sportspeople from Pas-de-Calais French female shot putters French female discus throwers French female high jumpers Olympic athletes for France Athletes (track and field) at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for France Olympic bronze medalists for France 20th-century French male classical pianists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Conservatoire de Paris alumni Knights of the Legion of Honour Musicians from Tunis