By Aiden Pink July 25, 2017

Margaret Bergmann Lambert, a record-breaking athlete who was barred by the Nazis from competing for Germany in the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics because she was Jewish, died in Queens, N.Y. on Tuesday at the age of 103.

Lambert was known in her athletic prime as “The Great Jewish Hope.” Then known as Gretel Bergmann, she set the German record with a high-jump of five feet, three inches at a meet at Adolf Hitler Stadium in Stuttgart a month before the Games. But she soon received a letter from Nazi officials stating: “Looking back on your recent performances, you could not possibly have expected to be chosen for the team.”

The meet had only been an exhibition to convince athletes considering boycotting the Olympics that Germany didn’t discriminate in sports. Her name was removed from the German record books.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

She immigrated to the United States the following year, and quickly won the U.S. women’s high-jump championships in 1937 and 1938. But World War II forced the cancellation of the 1940 Olympics — she was never able to compete on the biggest stage in sports.

In 1938, she married another German refugee, Dr. Bruno Lambert, who died in 2013. She is survived by two children, two grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

Today, sports stadiums are named after her in Queens, Berlin and her hometown of Laupheim. Her German national high jump record was restored in 2009.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount