Sonja Henie Life - World of Biography

An Inborn Desire

A life on ice may not seem very special to some people, but for a little Norwegian girl, Sonja Henie, it was everything. To her friends, touching the ice, sliding on it and playing with the snowballs was no more than fun. But for this little girl, it was an excitement of almost ecstasy. Sonja’s friends often teased her saying : “You’re crazy. You’d rather skate than eat.” Indeed the girl would skate on ice for hours, forgetting her lunch and dinner. One day she turned into the world’s topmost ice skater, passing hundred miles of ice under her blades.

She wanted to run over ice throughout her life, and she did.

Roots

Born in a wealthy family of Kristiania (now Oslo) in Norway on April 8, 1912, Sonja was the youngest child of Wilhelm Henie and Selma Nielson Henie. Sonja had an elder brother, Leif, five years senior to her. Sonja was born during a blizzard.

Sonja’s parents had inherited ancestral riches. They had a beautiful house surrounded by a large courtyard. Looking from the courtyard, the snow-capped mountains looked like snow-white swans with wings spread out under the sapphire sky. Sonja grew up surrounded by these icy high hills. The capital of Norway, Oslo was a colorful city and

the inhabitants were fond of every sport starting from ice-skating, skiing, to child’s play like making snowman. Children would sometime imitate the Eskimos by making an igloo – a small toy house. In spring, when April buds blossomed into flowers and birds filled the atmosphere with their sweet chirping, half of the town could be seen sliding on blades near the icy hills and grounds.

Sonja felt fascinated with ice, as she grew older. She saw hills melting by the end of winters. Ice gradually became an inevitable part of her existence. Her fascination for ice, unknowingly, turned into a goal she wanted to pursue in life.

Later she wrote in her autobiography, Wings on My Feet, “Good breaks began for me at the beginning. Family, home, circumstances, the country I lived in and the weather I was born in all conspired to make a skater of me.”

Sonja was born when the motor car had replaced the horse-drawn sleighs. Wilhelm Henie, Sonja’s father, was the first person to buy a motorcar in Oslo. As Henie family was a wealthy one, Sonja was given every facility to develop her talent, everything ranging from private rinks to private tuitions in skating and lessons in ballet.

Sonja was fond of dancing from a very early age. She had a natural liking for skating besides dancing. Her father arranged for a dance teacher for her when Sonja was about two years old; beginning of Sonja’s rudimental training that was going to lead her a long way.

Sonja’s father was a fur wholesaler. He was also a renowned athlete and had made his name among the world-level sports personalities. Winner of the World Bicycling Championship twice, winner of medals for speed skating, ski jumping and cross-country skiing, Wilhelm Henie was an enthusiastic father too. He could read her daughter’s passion for ice, while she would watch the skiers and skaters, jumping or sliding like an unbarred wind. Wilhelm proved to be a true guide, who tried his best to shape the natural athletic power within her. Both Wilhelm and Selma encouraged their kids to do something worth in life.

Wilhelm used to go on frequent trips to Europe. In his absence, Selma looked after the children, apart from supervising the workers. She was very strong, shrewd and balanced lady, who remained Sonja’s closest counselor and adviser forever.

Geilo – Her Dreamland

The Henie family had a hunting-lodge at Geilo, a mountain village famous for winter sports. When Sonja was four, she visited the beautiful place with her parents and her brother. She was very excited at the first view of Geilo : no one walked there, feet out of home were feet on skies ! Sonja became so crazy about Geilo that even on hearing about a future visit to the place, she would immediately put on her sweater and shoes !

Sonja spent many weekends and holidays at Geilo after the first snowfall of the year. Sonja’s father, ‘the pleasantest person ever seen in life’ and her mother, a ‘firm pillar of the family’, as described by Sonja, would walk around the city along with her two children – all covered in big rugs, winter caps and whole-shoes.

Sonja had skis from the first winter at Geilo. She felt amused at getting an opportunity to chase his elder brother, wherever he went, but she could hardly keep up with him. The siblings would wander in Geilo on skis. Initially, Sonja could not catch up with Leif but as days passed by, she could make it with Leif’s help. Sonja recalled the first skiing experience, “…I loved the speed; I felt I never could get enough of it. Brilliant winter days always went to my head, anyway, and when I could add speed that I made myself to the natural whip of the wind, I wanted never to go indoors.”

Many a times, the siblings would stay out for hours in chilled icy atmosphere. When they realized that a blizzard was coming up, they would rush home passing the downhill slopes and reach the doorstep of their lodge safely, beating the storm. It was more than fun for Sonja and out of this early skiing practice, she gained a good lesson of balance and rhythm in movement. This helped her a great deal in her skating career. When she would ski, many acquaintances predicted that she would become a graceful skier. At that time, Sonja was not old enough to think about her future. She knew only one thing, that she loved skiing and she would do it; as she described : “What I do know is that Geilo meant skiing, and skiing was like flying and this flying made me winter-drunk, an affliction I have never got over.”

In fact, this ‘affliction’ for flying never got over but transformed later in other way, as she would turn six. Her type of ‘flying’ changed from wooden runners to steel blades, but the state of excitement remained the same. While skiing on long, smooth surfaces, she had acquired great confidence and this confidence itself became her torah that guided her in every passage of life.