Helene Madison

Medal record
Helene Madison (left)
Women’s Swimming
Competitor for United States
Gold	1932 Los Angeles	100 m freestyle
Gold	1932 Los Angeles	400 m freestyle
Gold	1932 Los Angeles	4×100 m freestyle

Helene Madison (June 19, 1913 – November 27, 1970) was an American swimmer. She won three gold medals in freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympic Games, becoming, along with Romeo Neri of Italy, the most successful athlete there. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin.

In sixteen months in 1930 and 1931, she broke sixteen world records in various distances. Following the 1932 Olympics she appeared in the films The Human Fish and The Warrior's Husband and hence, as a professional, was not allowed to participate in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. After her swimming career, she had odd jobs as a swimming instructor, department store clerk and a nurse. Divorced three times and living alone, she died of throat cancer in 1970 in Seattle, Washington.

She was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame in 1992.

References

• Madison, Helene (1914-1970) at HistoryLink
• Helene Madison at the Internet Movie Database
• Wallechinsky, David (2004). The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics, Toronto: Sport Classic Books. ISBN 1-894963-34-2

Records
Preceded by Martha Norelius	Women's 1500 metres Freestyle World Record Holder (Long Course) July 15, 1931 – June 26, 1936	Succeeded by Grethe Frederiksen