Ostermeyer, Micheline (1922—)

French discus thrower and concert musician. Born on December 23, 1922, in Rang-du-Fliers, France; married in 1952.

Moved to Tunisia with her family (1929); at age 14, moved back to France to study music at the Paris Conservatory (1936); returned to Tunisia with the advent of World War II (1940) and joined the French Athletic Association, competing in several track and field events; at end of war, returned to France and music studies (1945); won Olympic gold medals in the discus and the shot put, as well as the bronze in the high jump (1948); retired from track and field competition (1951); married and moved to Lebanon with husband (1952); following the death of her husband over a decade later, returned to France to teach music at a conservatory just outside Paris.

Micheline Ostermeyer was born in France in 1922, but raised primarily in Tunisia. By age 13, she was studying piano at the Paris Conservatory. When her music studies were interrupted by World War II, Ostermeyer returned to Tunisia where she made her broadcast debut over Radio Tunisia in 1941. For the next 16 years, she would have a distinguished career on the concert stage, touring Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, playing in recital and with orchestras. Just months before competing in the London Olympics in 1948, she graduated with honors from the Paris Conservatory.

Ostermeyer was also a competitive athlete, becoming a champion in several track-and-field events. Throughout her sports career, she won 30 major titles and set more than 50 records, always using methods that protected her hands. At the Olympics, she was a multiple-medal winner, taking gold medals in the shot put (13.75), a new event, and in the discus (41.92), as well as a bronze in the high jump behind Alice Coachman of the U.S. and Dorothy Odam Tyler of Great Britain, who tied. Before the Games, Ostermeyer had thrown the discus in only one other competition.

A severe muscle strain effectively ended her track-and-field career in 1951. In 1952, she married and moved to Lebanon. Following her husband's death, she moved back to Paris with her children and became a professor at the École Nationale de Musique; some of her students went on to prominent and critically acclaimed careers.