Hélène de Pourtalès

Hélène de Pourtàles ( born April 28, 1868 in New York City; † November 2, 1945 in Geneva, born Helen Barbey ) was a Swiss sailor.

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, the U.S. citizen formed, along with her husband Hermann de Pourtàles and her nephew Bernard de Pourtàles the crew of the boat Lérina, which took in the class of boat to 2 tons. They won the first race on the Seine and reached in the second, separately evaluated race for second place.

Hélène de Pourtàles is the first woman who took part in an Olympic competition and also the first Olympic champion of the modern era. My stepson was the writer Guy de Pourtàles.