Lis Hartel: Beating Polio
That Danish equestrian Lis Hartel was competing at all in the 1952 dressage competition was perhaps more surprising and impressive than the fact that she won the silver medal. She had faced two major obstacles in the years before the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland; one was removed for her and the other she overcame herself.
The first obstacle was the elitism that for 40 years surrounded the Olympic dressage event. When dressage was added to the Olympic program in 1912, it was open to commissioned military officers only. This restriction remained in place until 1952. At the Helsinki Games the event was finally open to noncommissioned officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian men and women. Hartel was one of the first four women to compete against men in an equestrian sport.
Hartel’s other obstacle was polio. She was already one of Denmark’s most accomplished dressage riders when she was stricken with the disease in 1944. In a matter of a few days, polio rendered Hartel completely paralyzed. With stubborn determination and steely willpower, Hartel, who was pregnant, refused to succumb to the crippling disease and embarked on an intensive physical therapy program. Gradually she won back the use of her arms and then partial leg movement as well. She gave birth to a healthy daughter a few months later. In 1947 she returned to the highest level of dressage competition—a sport that requires controlling the horse through subtle movements of the hands and legs—by placing second at the Scandinavian riding championships.
Hartel remained paralyzed below the knees and still needed help in mounting and dismounting her horse. At Helsinki, only Sweden’s Henri Saint Cyr thwarted her remarkable bid for gold; he was to do exactly the same at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. The Helsinki battle was an exciting and strenuous contest, with Hartel losing by a narrow margin of 20 points. Later Saint Cyr graciously helped her onto the victory platform in a poignant and emotional Olympic moment.