Magda Lenkei

Magda Lenkei learned to swim in 1929 and her talent soon showed when she set a Hungarian record in the 100m freestyle the very next year. In 1931, with 1:09.8 seconds, she beat the English Cooper’s European record of 1:10 seconds and was the first in Europe to swim under 1:10 seconds.

In the same year, she took part in the European Championship in Paris, but due to bad form timing, three months after the European record, she could only finish in fifth place in the final with a time of 1:14.8 seconds. As a member of the Hungarian 4x100m freestyle relay, she still managed to win a bronze medal.

After Paris, Lenkei did not return home with her family and performed on Roman variety stages under the name Madge Bisera. In addition to her artistic successes, through her father’s connections, she taught Mussolini’s sons to swim. Although she did not swim much herself, she still wanted to compete in the Olympics; her father agreed on the condition that she travels with him to Los Angeles. Although Fülöp Linzer promised a world record on behalf of his daughter, the federation rejected the offer. Lenkei got a contract as a dancer in Berlin in 1933, but also continued to swim, returning home in 1934.

Prior to the 1936 Olympics, she started training more seriously and joined to the Hungarian team. In the 100 metres, she finished in second place in his preliminaries, with a time of less than 1:10, but in the semi-finals finished last in her race, swimming only 1:12.1. As a member of the relay, she finished fourth. After that, there was no news about her for years, in 1939 it was written that she got married in Egypt, that she performed in an amusement park, with acrobatic productions and that she was still capable of times around 1:10.