Nora Tausz Rónai

Nora Tausz Rónai (born 29 February 1924) is a Brazilian Holocaust survivor, architect, writer and masters swimmer. After a career as a professor of descriptive geometry, she began competing internationally as a Masters swimmer in 1993. She has won 13 gold medals and has broken both national and regional records for her age group.

Family and early life Rónai was born on 29 February 1924 in Fiume (at the time in Italy, now Rijeka, in Croatia). She spent four years living in Budapest as a child, and spoke Fiumano (a Venetian dialect), Italian and Hungarian in the family home.

Rónai's father, Edoardo Tausz, was president of a Hungarian insurance agency, and her mother was Jolán Kápolnai. Her aunt Marta was a concert pianist. Due to a family feud, her father converted to Catholicism. When Italy joined the Axis powers and entered World War II, Jewish men in Fiume were rounded up and her father and brother were sent to a detention camp in Torretta.

Rónai married philologist, translator and writer Paulo Rónai in civil ceremony in February 1952. They had two daughters together, Cora Rónai and Laura Rónai. Her husband died in 1992, aged 85.

Swimming

In the 1950s, Rónai was the Rio de Janeiro champion in diving. She featured on the cover of Seleções Esportivas magazine in January 1950.

Rónai has won 13 gold medals At the 2014 World Aquatics Masters Championships, she swam the 200m butterfly stroke in under nine minutes, setting a record and becoming the oldest swimmer to ever compete in the event. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2024.