Pairs skater Helene Engelmann competed with Alfred Berger at the 1924 inaugural Chamonix Winter Olympics and won the gold medal. She had skated before World War I with the non-Olympian Karl Mejstrik, winning the World Championships in 1913, and the silver medal in 1914. Engelmann and Berger won all three consecutive Austrian Championships in which they participated, from 1921-23. They competed twice at the World Figure Skating Championships, winning the title on both occasions, 1922 and 1924.
Engelmann had a long sporting pedigree. She was the daughter of Eduard Engelmann, European Champion in figure skating (1892-1894), and the sister of Eduard “Edi” Engelmann Jr., national champion in motorboating. This made her the cousin of Herma Planck-Szabó. Engelmann’s sister Christina married the 1932 and 1936 Olympic Champion Karl Schäfer. She was also the sister-in-law of ice hockey player Reginald Spevak.
Austria