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JWR VerifiedJWR-2026-000181

Sports · Olympic GamesFirst

First Jewish Woman to Win an Individual Olympic Gold Medal

Record holder

Helene MayerPerson

Record value

1 August 1928

Country represented: GermanyAchievement location: Amsterdam, NetherlandsAchievement date: 1 August 1928Current record

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Verified by Jewish World RecordsHow we verify records

Portrait of Jewish German Olympic fencing champion Helene Mayer in 1928.

Helene Mayer in 1928, the year she won Olympic foil gold.Underwood & Underwood / Wikimedia CommonsSourcePublic domain

Official record definition

The earliest Jewish woman to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual medal event, excluding team events.

Measurement methodology

Chronological comparison of Jewish women’s Olympic medals at Amsterdam 1928, separating individual and team events and using final dates.

Record story

Helene Mayer of Germany became the first Jewish woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal on 1 August 1928. Her record-setting achievement was "Gold — women’s individual foil, Amsterdam 1928, 1 August 1928", secured in the fencing final at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The record is significant as the earliest instance of a Jewish woman winning a gold medal in a solo Olympic competition, excluding team events.

The claim is based on a chronological comparison of medals won by Jewish women at the 1928 Games. While another Jewish female athlete, Fanny Rosenfeld, won a silver medal on 31 July 1928, Mayer's victory the following day was the first gold. Her individual title also preceded the gold medals won by other Jewish women in team events later during the Amsterdam Games. Olympedia confirms the date and result of the women's individual foil final, and contemporaneous Jewish press from 1928 reported that Mayer was the daughter of a Jewish father and was reared in the Jewish faith.

Media

Record video

How JWR verified this record

Verification status
Verified
Verification date
26 September 2026
Verification standard
JWR Verification Standard 1.0

Achievement evidence

Olympedia records Mayer as winner of the women’s individual foil final on 1 August 1928.

Superiority evidence

Rosenfeld’s 31 July medal was silver. Mayer’s individual foil gold on 1 August precedes the Jewish women’s team gold medals later in the Games, making her the earliest Jewish woman individual Olympic champion under this definition.

Jewish Eligibility — Verified by JWR

Jewish eligibility verification

Evidence establishing that the holder qualifies as Jewish for JWR purposes.

  • Helena Mayer, Olympic Fencing Champion, is German Jewish Girl — Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Achievement / record verification

Evidence establishing that the holder achieved the result and holds the record as defined.

  • Foil, Individual, Women — Final Pool, Amsterdam 1928 — Olympedia
  • Helene Mayer, 1928 photo by Underwood — Wikimedia Commons
  • The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 — Jewish Athletes: Helene Mayer — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Helene Mayer — Georgia Commission on the Holocaust — Georgia Commission on the Holocaust
  • Olympedia — Helene Mayer — Olympedia

Superiority / counter-candidate verification

Evidence comparing the result with other candidates relevant to the record claim.

  • Jewish Olympic Medalists — International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

Jewish eligibility, achievement and superiority evidence retain their separate classifications and are never merged. Context and provenance are not presented as proof of the achievement. Restricted evidence and internal research notes are never published. Learn more about the seven-stage process on the verification page.

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Sources & Verification

History

  1. Verified

    Verified according to JWR Verification Standard 1.0.

  2. Publishedv1

    Published to the official JWR registry.

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