Ilona Elek

Ilona Elek, known also as Ilona Elek-Schacherer (née “Elek"; 17 May 1907 – 24 July 1988) was a Hungarian Olympic fencer. Elek won more international fencing titles than any other woman.

Early and personal life Elek was born on 17 May 1907, in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary to a Hungarian-Jewish father born Eisler who 1939 converted to Lutheranism and a Roman-Catholic mother. She had seven siblings, including two-time Olympic fencer Margit Elek, and her mother died when she was 11 years old. She graduated from a music school. When 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.

Fencing career 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.

Hungarian National Championships Elek won the Hungarian 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. She won silver in 1937 and 1954, and bronze in 1955.

Olympics Elek was the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals in the individual foil competition. defeated a German with a Jewish father, Helene Mayer.

Elek won the silver medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games.

Later years and death Elek later was a director of a trade company. She died in Budapest at the age of 81.