Editing Sonja Henie (section)

===Competitive career===
[[File:Medal ceremony figure skating Olympic Games 1936.jpg|thumb|Henie with British skater [[Cecilia Colledge]] during the medals ceremony at the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.]]
Henie placed eighth in a field of eight at the [[1924 Winter Olympics]], at the age of eleven.<ref name=sr>{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/he/sonja-henie-1.html|title=Sonja Henie|website=sports-reference.com|publisher=Sports Reference LLC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309082541/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/he/sonja-henie-1.html|archive-date=9 March 2010}}</ref> Henie won the first of an unprecedented ten consecutive World Figure Skating Championships in 1927 at the age of fourteen.<ref name="hines-xxiii">Hines, p. xxiii</ref> The results of 1927 World Championships, where Henie won in 3–2 decision (or 7 vs. 8 ordinal points) over the defending Olympic and World Champion [[Herma Szabo]] of [[Austria]], was "controversial",<ref name="hines-xxiii" /> as three of the five judges that gave Henie first-place ordinals were Norwegian (1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 7 points) while Szabo received first-place ordinals from an Austrian and a German Judge (1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 8 points). Henie went on to win first of her three [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] gold medals the following year, becoming one of the youngest figure skating Olympic champions. She defended her Olympic titles in 1932 and in 1936, and her world titles annually until 1936. Henie and [[Gillis Grafström]] from Sweden are the only skaters to win three Olympic gold medals in single skating.<ref name=sr/><ref name="hines-xxiii" /> She also won six consecutive European championships from 1931 to 1936.

Henie's unprecedented three Olympic gold medals have not been matched by any ladies' single skater since, nor have her achievements as ten-time consecutive World champion. While [[Irina Slutskaya]] of Russia has held the record for most European titles among ladies' skaters since 2006, Henie still retains the record of most consecutive titles, sharing it with [[Katarina Witt]] of [[East Germany]]/[[Germany]] (1983–1988).

Towards the end of her career, she began to be strongly challenged by younger skaters including [[Cecilia Colledge]], [[Megan Taylor]], and [[Hedy Stenuf]]. However, she held off these competitors and went on to win her third Olympic title at the [[1936 Winter Olympics]], albeit in very controversial circumstances with Cecilia Colledge finishing a very close second. Indeed, after the school figures section at the 1936 Olympic competition, Colledge and Henie were virtually neck and neck with Colledge trailing by just a few points. As Sandra Stevenson recounted in ''[[The Independent]]'', "the closeness [of the competition] infuriated Henie, who, when the result for that section was posted on a wall in the competitors' lounge, swiped the piece of paper and tore it into little pieces.

The draw for the free skating [then] came under suspicion after Henie landed the plum position of skating last, while Colledge had to perform second of the 26 competitors. The early start was seen as a disadvantage, with the audience not yet whipped into a clapping frenzy and the judges known to become freer with their higher marks as the event proceeded. Years later, a fairer, staggered draw was adopted to counteract this situation".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/cecilia-colledge-champion-figure-skater-812673.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/cecilia-colledge-champion-figure-skater-812673.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Cecilia Colledge: Champion figure skater|last=Stevenson|first=Sandra|date=21 April 2008|work=The Independent|access-date=3 January 2021}}</ref>

During her competitive career, Henie traveled widely and worked with a variety of foreign coaches. At home in Oslo, she trained at [[Frogner|Frogner Stadium]], where her coaches included Hjørdis Olsen and Oscar Holte. During the latter part of her competitive career she was coached primarily by the American Howard Nicholson in [[London]].

In addition to traveling to train and compete, she was much in demand as a performer at figure skating exhibitions in both Europe and North America. Henie became so popular with the public that police had to be called out for crowd control on her appearances in various disparate cities such as [[Prague]] and [[New York City]].

It was an open secret that, in spite of the strict [[amateur sports|amateurism]] requirements of the time, Wilhelm Henie demanded "expense money" for his daughter's skating appearances. Both of Henie's parents had given up their own pursuits in Norway—leaving Leif to run the fur business—in order to accompany Sonja on her travels and act as her managers.