View source for Ilona Elek

{{short description|Hungarian fencer}}
{{Eastern name order|Elek Ilona}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| name           = Ilona Elek
| image          = Elek Ilona portré.JPG
| birth_name     = Ilona Elek
| fullname       = Ilona Elek-Schacherer
| nickname       =
| nationality    =
| residence      =
| birth_date     = {{birth date|1907|5|17|df=yes}}
| birth_place    = [[Budapest]], Hungary
| death_date     = {{death date and age|1988|7|24|1907|5|17|df=yes}}
| death_place    = Budapest, Hungary
| height         =
| weight         =
| website        =
| country        =
| sport          = [[Fencing]]
| event          = Foil
| collegeteam    =
| club           =
| team           =
| turnedpro      =
| coach          =
| retired        =
| coaching       =
| worlds         =
| regionals      =
| nationals      =
| olympics       =
| paralympics    =
| highestranking =
| pb             =
| medaltemplates = {{MedalSport|Women's [[Fencing (sport)|fencing]]}}
{{MedalCountry | {{HUN}} }}
{{MedalSport | Women's Fencing}}
{{MedalCompetition|[[Olympic Games]]}}
{{MedalGold| [[1936 Summer Olympics|1936 Berlin]] | [[Fencing at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Women's foil|Foil individual]]}}
{{MedalGold| [[1948 Summer Olympics|1948 London]] | [[Fencing at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Women's foil|Foil individual]]}}
{{MedalSilver| [[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Helsinki]] | [[Fencing at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Women's foil|Foil individual]]}}
{{MedalCompetition|[[World Fencing Championships|World Championships]]}}
{{MedalGold| [[1934 World Fencing Championships|1934 Warsaw]] | Individual foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1934 World Fencing Championships|1934 Warsaw]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1935 World Fencing Championships|1935 Lausanne]] | Individual foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1935 World Fencing Championships|1935 Lausanne]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1937 World Fencing Championships|1937 Paris]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1951 World Fencing Championships|1951 Stockholm]] | Individual foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1952 World Fencing Championships|1952 Copenhagen]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1953 World Fencing Championships|1953 Brussels]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1954 World Fencing Championships|1954 Luxembourg]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalGold| [[1955 World Fencing Championships|1955 Rome]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalSilver| [[1936 World Fencing Championships|1936 Sanremo]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalSilver| [[1937 World Fencing Championships|1937 Paris]] | Individual foil}}
{{MedalSilver| [[1948 World Fencing Championships|1948 The Hague]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalSilver| [[1951 World Fencing Championships|1951 Stockholm]] | Team foil}}
{{MedalSilver| [[1954 World Fencing Championships|1954 Luxembourg]] | Individual foil}}
{{MedalBronze| [[1955 World Fencing Championships|1955 Rome]] | Individual foil}}
{{MedalBronze| [[1956 World Fencing Championships|1956 London]] | Team foil}}
| show-medals    = yes
}}
'''Ilona Elek''', known also as '''Ilona Elek-Schacherer''' ([[née]] “Elek"; 17 May 1907 – 24 July 1988) was a Hungarian [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] [[Fencing|fencer]].<ref name="sports-reference">{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/el/ilona-elek-schacherer-1.html |title=Ilona Elek Olympic Results |access-date=3 June 2010 |work=sports-reference.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923130321/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/el/ilona-elek-schacherer-1.html |archive-date=23 September 2013 }}</ref> Elek won more international fencing titles than any other woman.<ref name=EB>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002621/Ilona-Elek Ilona Elek] on [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref>

==Early and personal life==
Elek was born on 17 May 1907, in [[Budapest]], [[Kingdom of Hungary]] to a Hungarian-[[Who is a Jew?#Contemporary Judaism##Jewish by birth###Patrilineal descent|Jewish father]] born Eisler who 1939 converted to lutheranism and a Roman-Catholic mother.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/10/19/duels-in-the-sunshine/|title=Duels in the Sunshine|date=19 October 2000|last=Eisen|first=George|publisher=The New York Review|access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ident.familysearch.org/cis-web/oauth2/v3/authorization?client_secret=HZsoS7fc8GAer%2BfiGFUPNi9RbDgQdAEAxHByKFRpRK3O%2Bt1AvzUIo80s8PD6D5kAknE4wYubhaPPwxXyoabtX8B4ALtLDLa0iAANrWQA6hvO%2BjIJq88xpM0FLLwNOHfITDwQRHhS1QVEIYNKPKVjWHBll6Fc2ukjHgMPi7m17bF77H5GOGFYisCEk9eiTDg%2FENFlo7P7YatXh07C4smK3uv%2BU0UBeVINsQRJt1J%2BZwRW1Ot8whYGYxEO4EnLHOQqmmbLY4dRf%2FJDC7%2BGAPa9yR9L75yXD9VkXcmcg60zCCOaHjoYlyLI62TsVVdH6spkObbwnirKH9gSD7OWLwe2qA%3D%3D&icid=hr-signin&response_type=code&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Fauth%2Ffamilysearch%2Fcallback&state=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Ffrontier%2Fsearch-bifrost%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F3%3A1%3AS3HT-DB57-ZBD%3Fi%3D117%26cc%3D1452460&client_id=3Z3L-Z4GK-J7ZS-YT3Z-Q4KY-YN66-ZX5K-176R|title=FamilySearch: Oauth2 Request Error}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/foiledhitlersjew00mill/page/157 <!-- quote=Ilona Elek. --> ''Foiled: Hitler's Jewish Olympian: the Helene Mayer Story'' - Milly Mogulof<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name=autogenerated3>[https://books.google.com/books?id=d6YzDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ilona+Elek&pg=PA27 ''Memories After My Death: The Story of My Father, Joseph "Tommy" Lapid'' - Yair Lapid<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name="sports-reference" /><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3sQpDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ilona+Elek&pg=PA99 ''The Forgotten Legacy of Stella Walsh: The Greatest Female Athlete of Her Time'' - Sheldon Anderson<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OU-2BgAAQBAJ&dq=Ilona+Elek&pg=PT165 ''The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era'' - Jessica Amanda Salmonson<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzp4O3gsJKwC&dq=Ilona+Elek&pg=PA60 ''Nazis, Women and Molecular Biologie: Memoirs of a Lucky Self-hater'' - Gunther Siegmund Stent<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> She had seven siblings, including two-time Olympic fencer [[Margit Elek]], and her mother died when she was 11 years old.<ref name=autogenerated2>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200417230927/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/el/ilona-elek-schacherer-1.html Ilona Elek-Schacherer Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xIG2AAAAIAAJ&q=Ilona+Elek ''Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700'' - Bonnie G. Smith<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> She graduated from a music school.<ref name=autogenerated1>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xQ6MDgAAQBAJ&dq=Ilona+Elek&pg=PA53 ''Век фехтования'' - Валерий Штейнбах<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> When [[Hungary in World War II|Hungary entered World War II on the side of Nazi Germany]], Hungarian Jews were forbidden from entering fencing competitions, and so Elek and her sister, who was also [[half-Jewish]], were unable to compete until after the war ended.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=A3-BAAAAMAAJ&q=Ilona+Elek ''Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics: with a ...'' - Paul Taylor<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

==Fencing career==
[[File:Danÿ Margit & Elek Ilona & Bogen Erna & Elek Margit.jpg|thumb|260px|[[Margit Danÿ]], Ilona Elek, [[Erna Bogen-Bogáti]], and [[Margit Elek]] in 1933.]]
Elek competed for Hungary in three Olympiads, winning three medals.  She is considered to be one of the greatest female fencers in the history of the sport.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xcfef_d2es4C&q=Ilona+Elek+%22greatest%22&pg=PA213|author=Peter S. Horvitz |title=The Big Book of Jewish Sports Heroes: An Illustrated Compendium of Sports History and The 150 Greatest Jewish Sports Stars |publisher=SP Books|year=2007 |isbn=9781561719075 |access-date=19 November 2010}}</ref>

===Hungarian National Championships===
Elek won the Hungarian [[foil (sword)|foil]] championship in 1946–47, 1949–50, and 1952.

===World Championships===
Elek won the gold medal in women's foil at the World Championships in 1934, 1935, and 1951.<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=aNjtAAAAMAAJ&q=Ilona+Elek ''For the record: women in sports'' - Robert Markel, Nancy Brooks, Susan Markel<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> She won silver in 1937 and 1954, and bronze in 1955.<ref name="Jews in Sports">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewsinsports.org/olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=226|title=Scharerer-Elek, Ilona|publisher=Jews in Sports|access-date=18 February 2014}}</ref>

===Olympics===
Elek was the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals in the individual foil competition.<ref name=EB/>

Elek's first Olympic competition was at the [[1936 Summer Olympics]] in Berlin, Germany, at the age of 29.<ref name=autogenerated3 /><ref name=autogenerated2 />  She won the gold medal in the foil event, the first Hungarian woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics.  In the process, Elek, who was Jewish,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tGcPDXOjxMoC&q=%22Jews+and+the+Olympic+Games%22+ilona+elek&pg=PA35 |title=Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics |author=Paul Taylor |year=2004 |isbn=9781903900871 |access-date=20 October 2011}}</ref> defeated a German with a [[Judaism|Jew]]ish father, [[Helene Mayer]].<ref name="Jews in Sports" />  The bronze medal went to [[Ellen Preis]], an [[Austrians|Austrian]] Jew.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

The Games were cancelled in 1940 and 1944. When the Games resumed after [[World War II]], at age 41 she repeated her performance as Olympic champion by winning a gold medal in the [[1948 Summer Olympics]] in London, England.<ref name="Jews in Sports" /><ref name=autogenerated2 /> Ellen Preis again won the bronze medal.<ref name=USHMM>[http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd068.htm Jewish Athletes] at the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205033727/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd068.htm |date=5 February 2005 }}</ref>

Elek won the [[silver medal]] at the 1952 [[Helsinki]] Games.<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref name=autogenerated2 />  After winning her first five matches in the final pool, she was in contention for the gold medal, but she lost to American [[Maxine Mitchell]], and Italian [[Irene Camber]], who won the gold.<ref name="Jews in Sports" />

===Awards===
She was later awarded the [[Robert Feyerick]] Cup and the [[Olympic Order]].<ref name=autogenerated1 />

==International Fencing Federation==
In 1983, she was the [[International Fencing Federation]] honorary President.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OMzOCwAAQBAJ&dq=Ilona+Elek&pg=PA91 ''Sport and the Emancipation of European Women: The Struggle for Self-fulfilment''<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

==Later years and death==
Elek later was a director of a trade company.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> She died in Budapest at the age of 81.<ref name=autogenerated2 />

==See also==
*[[List of Jews in sports#Fencing|List of select Jewish fencers]]
*[[List of Jewish Olympic medalists]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070309064651/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=ELEKILO01 Olympic record]
*[https://olympics.com/en/athletes/ilona-elek Olympic site bio]

{{Commons category|Ilona Elek}}
{{Footer Olympic Champions Fencing Women Individual Foil}}
{{World Champions in Women's Foil}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elek, Ilona}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:Hungarian female foil fencers]]
[[Category:Olympic fencers for Hungary]]
[[Category:Fencers at the 1936 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Fencers at the 1948 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Fencers at the 1952 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists for Hungary]]
[[Category:Olympic silver medalists for Hungary]]
[[Category:Olympic medalists in fencing]]
[[Category:Jewish foil fencers]]
[[Category:Jewish Hungarian sportspeople]]
[[Category:Fencers from Budapest]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:20th-century Hungarian sportswomen]]
[[Category:Left-handed fencers]]