Ellen Preis

Ellen Müller-Preis, née Preis, (6 May 1912 – 18 November 2007) was an Austrian foil fencer.

In 1949, she was named Austrian female athlete of the year.

Fencing career

Preis was born in Berlin, moved to Vienna at the age of 18, and began receiving fencing instruction from her aunt. In under two years she came in third in the European Championships in Vienna. She later married Dr. Müller and had two sons and a daughter, who died from whooping cough.

World and National Championships

She won three world championships (1947, 1949, and 1950) and numerous national Austrian titles (17). In 1949 Müller-Preis was named the first ever "Austrian Female Athlete of the Year."

At one point, Prof. Müller-Preis was credited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the female with the longest Olympic span of any woman, competing from 1932 until 1956. The record has since been broken. Two Olympic Games were cancelled at that time due to World War II, 1940 and 1944.

Olympics

As a German/Austrian dual citizen, she wanted to fence for Germany in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics but was rejected by the German Federation. She then fenced in those Olympics for Austria, beating Heather "Judy" Guinness of England for the gold medal. At both the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 1948 London Olympics, she won bronze medals.