The first South American female swimmer to participate in the Olympics.
Maria Emma Hulda Lenk Zigler. One name, one extraordinary story: that of the first South American female swimmer to participate in the 1932 Olympics.
She was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on 15 January 1915, the daughter of German immigrants. It was she, the first female swimmer to take part in the Olympic competition in 1932 in Los Angeles. She was 17 years old and never before had a woman from her continent participated in the Games.
He competed in the 200 metres breaststroke styleand reached the semifinals. Only a few years later, in 1936, in Berlin, he competed with the butterfly stylewhich until then had only been used by men, and in 1939, he set world records in this style in the 100 and 200 metres.
And like a butterfly, Maria Lenk she continued to fly over everyone, always competing at the top of her game in the most important competitions and setting 12 American records. The difficult years of the Second World War did not hold back this young and tenacious woman, who was ready to be noticed by the whole world.
A degree in physical education at the Springfield Collegelecturer at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and entry, hitherto the prerogative only of male colleagues, into the Brazilian council for the sports.
A love of swimming that marked her life since she was a child and accompanied her until her final years, competing in 2003, at the age of 88, in the masters swimming championships.
In 1988, it was included in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. She, who, like a butterfly, has flown on water, her natural element, for a lifetime.
English 
Italian 