Herma Szabo became the first woman to win an Olympic figure-skating gold medal at Chamonix 1924.
The Austrian skater won the women's singles event at the first Winter Olympics. She had already established herself as a major figure in the sport, winning five consecutive World Figure Skating Championships from 1922 through 1926.
Szabo's Olympic victory is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Sonja Henie, who won the women's singles title at the next three Winter Olympics, beginning in 1928. Madge Syers was the first woman to compete in Olympic figure skating, but that happened at the 1908 Summer Olympics, before the Winter Games existed.
Herma Szabo later retired from competitive skating. Her 1924 title is a landmark in both women's sport and Olympic figure-skating history because it opened the separate Winter Olympic era for the discipline.