Henie

Although Theslof’s grandmother had statues erected in her honor in Hungary and at the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame in Colorado and performed for the king and queen of Sweden when she was 80, she’s probably best remembered for her snub of Hitler and her spat with legendary Norwegian skater Sonja Henie.

The long-running feud with Henie, a three-time gold medalist and 10-time world champion, was much more personal and vicious, with both sides trading barbed insults.

“Sonja Henie used to date my grandfather,” he said of Gene Theslof, who was Henie’s skating partner before he left her to marry Hulten.

In the summer of 1936, a few years after the 1932 Summer Olympics, the Coliseum booked figure-skating champion Sonja Henie for a performance.

I had visions of myself as Sonja Henie gliding under the lights, only to find the rink was a sad, unshoveled rectangle, with ice that was pitted and rough under our skates.