German High Jumper Finally Gets Her Due

In 1936, German high jumper Margaret Bergmann Lambert thought she was on top of the world.

She matched the high jump record of 5 feet 3 inches and was gearing up to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. But her dreams were soon transformed into a hellish nightmare when Germany unceremoniously erased her record and dumped her from their Olympic team ... simply because she was Jewish.

But at long last, the now 95-year-old New York City resident is finally getting her due. This month, the German track and field association formally restored her high jump record and wholly apologized for ruining her athletic career.

While the honor "can in no way make up" for the past, it serves as an "act of justice and a symbolic gesture," the committee said Monday, as reported by the New York Daily News.

The paper sat down with Bergmann Lambert at her Queens home and made her sound like a feisty, blunt, loveably old lady. Although she appreciates the award, she admits it "doesn't bother me one way or another. If it would never have happened I wouldn't have killed myself either."

Perhaps that's because she long ago found other things to live for. After she was kicked off the team — and replaced by "Dora" Ratjen, who later proved to be a man named Horst Ratjen — Bergman Lambert admitted, "I had so much fury."

She promptly made plans to skedaddle out of Germany, and did just that in 1937, landing in New York and living with her brother on the Upper West Side. She eventually worked as a house cleaner and met her husband, Bruno Lambert, now 99. The pair have been married an astounding 71 years and have two sons.

Although she found new joys in her life, the athlete of yesteryear admitted she could never bring herself to watch the Olympics. "To tell the truth, I used to sit there and curse my head off when the Olympics were going on," she said. "Now I don't do that anymore. I've mellowed quite a bit."

However, she stood her ground when a Daily News photographer asked her to pose for a picture at the end of the interview, around 7 p.m. She replied, "Listen, I'm 95 years old. I have to go to bed."

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.