Micheline Ostermeyer facts for kids

Ostermeyer at the 1950 European Championships
Quick facts for kids Personal information
Born	23 December 1922 Rang-du-Fliers, France
Died	17 October 2001 (aged 78) Bois-Guillaume, France
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	73 kg (161 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Club	Orientale, Tunis
Medal record Representing  France Olympic Games Gold 1948 London Shot put Gold 1948 London Discus throw Bronze 1948 London High jump European Championships Silver 1946 Oslo Shot put Bronze 1950 Brussels Shot put Bronze 1950 Brussels 80 m hurdles

Micheline Ostermeyer (born December 23, 1922 – died October 17, 2001) was a talented French woman. She was famous for two things: being a great athlete and a skilled concert pianist.

She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She earned gold medals in shot put and discus throw. She also won a bronze medal in high jump. After she stopped competing in sports in 1950, she focused on her music career. She played piano full-time for 15 years, then became a teacher.

Early Life and Music Training

Micheline Ostermeyer was born in Rang-du-Fliers, France. She was related to famous people. Her great-aunt was the French writer Victor Hugo. Her uncle was the composer Lucien Laroche.

Micheline started learning piano when she was just four years old. Her mother really wanted her to play. When she was 14, she left her family's home in Tunisia. She went to study music at the famous Conservatoire de Paris.

During World War II, she moved back to Tunisia. There, she played the piano every week on Radio Tunis. Her half-hour recitals were very popular.

Becoming an Athlete

While she was back in Tunisia, Micheline also started playing sports. She competed in basketball and track and field events. After the war ended, she kept playing sports. At the same time, she went back to studying music at the Conservatoire.

Micheline was good at many sports. She won 13 French national titles. These titles were in different events like running, throwing, and jumping. In 1946, she won a silver medal in the shot put event. This was at the European Athletics Championship in Oslo. In the same year, she also won a top music award, the Prix Premier, from the Conservatoire.

Olympic Glory in 1948

The 1948 Summer Olympics in London was a very special time for Micheline. It was her best performance as an athlete. She won two gold medals. One was for the shot put and the other for the discus throw. What's amazing is that she had only just started practicing with a discus a few weeks before the event!

She also won a bronze medal in the high jump. Micheline was the first French woman to win an Olympic medal in athletics. Her success was huge. Only Fanny Blankers-Koen from the Netherlands won more medals at those Olympics. Fanny won four gold medals.

After winning the shot put, Micheline celebrated in a unique way. She gave a surprise piano concert at her team's headquarters. She also performed at the Royal Albert Hall.

Life After Sports

Micheline stopped competing in sports in 1950. She had won two more bronze medals at the European Championships that year. After retiring from sports, she focused completely on her music career.

However, her fame as an athlete sometimes made it harder for her to be seen as a serious concert pianist. She even avoided playing music by Franz Liszt for six six years. She thought his music was too "sportif," meaning too athletic or energetic.

Micheline toured as a pianist for 15 years. Later, she decided to take a teaching job. This was partly due to personal reasons, like her husband's death. She taught until she retired in the early 1980s. In her final years, she came out of retirement to play more concerts. She performed in both France and Switzerland before she passed away in Bois-Guillaume.

In 2016, Micheline Ostermeyer was honored. She was inducted into the Olympians for Life project. This project celebrates athletes who have made a big impact.

See also

In Spanish: Micheline Ostermeyer para niños