Heidi Schmid


Adelheid "Heidi" Schmid is a retired German fencer who competed at the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics in the individual and team foil events. She won an individual gold in 1960 and a team bronze medal in 1964.

Career

Schmid took fencing when she was 13 years old. One year later, 14 years old, she finished third in the German youth championships. She became female German champion in foil fencing in 1957, 1959, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968.
On 1 September 1960 Heidi Schmid won the Olympic gold medal in Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome, after defeating Maria Vicol from Romania with a 4:3 score. Four years later, she was part of the German team that received a bronze medal in the team competition. The team qualified from pool C, defeated France in the quarterfinal, lost to the Hungarian team in the semifinal, and defeated Italy in the bronze final.
In 1961 Schmid became the world champion and also student world champion in foil, and was selected German sportswoman of the year. In addition, she won an individual silver medal at the 1957 world championships, and two team silver medals.

Later life

After retiring from competitions Schmid worked as a music teacher. She married a fellow teacher Hans Grundmann.

Awards