Karen Lachmann

Karen Vilhelmine Lachmann (* May 30, 1916 in Beijing, † September 30, 1962 in Gentofte ) was a Danish fencer.

Life

The Beijing-born daughter of an engineer grew by marrying the mother with the lithographer Aksel Lachmann with her two sisters in a wealthy Jewish family. This enabled her to early to take private fencing lessons with the French-born fencing master L. Mahaut and their sport at Københavns lady Fægteklub fra 1898 exercise.

Throughout her career, she took part in four Olympic Games, where they always reached the final. After she ranked fifth in the foil - women's singles in 1936, she won the silver and bronze medal at the 1952 Olympic Games in 1948.

Due to continuous back pain she had to undergo several operations, her a piece of bone from the tibia was implanted in the back, among others. Nevertheless, she could continue her career at the highest level. In addition to other international successes with the world title in the individual competition 1954 she won from 1951 to 1957 without interruption, the Danish championship in foil fencing. After another major surgery in 1958, she finished in the following year with their last national championships on their active career.

Until her death in 1962 she was official of the Danish Sports Federation ( Danske Idræts - Forbunds, short DIF).

Statistics

Olympic games

1936 in Berlin

• Fifth Place in foil - Single

1948 in London

• Silver foil in single

1952 in Helsinki

• Bronze in the foil individual

1956 in Melbourne

• Sixth place in the foil individual

World Fencing Championships

1937 in Paris

• Bronze in the foil team

1947 in Lisbon

• Gold foil with the team

1948 in The Hague

• Gold foil with the team

1949 in Cairo

• Silver foil in single

1951 in Stockholm

• Silver foil in single

1954 in Luxembourg

• Gold foil single