Obituary
If Caroline Wozniacki, Michael Laudrup and Tom Kristensen are big sports names in modern Denmark and known in all Danish places around the world - not least because of the TV medias great power - it was Inge Sorensen from Skovshoved, Denmark's Little Lovely Inge, who, back in the 1930’s and 1940's, long before television overtook the entertainment of the entire population, was Denmark’s darling.
She died Wednesday march 9 2011 at home in New Jersey in the U.S. at the age of 86.
If Caroline Wozniacki, Michael Laudrup and Tom Kristensen are big sports names in modern Denmark and known in all Danish places around the world - not least because of the TV medias great power - it was Inge Sorensen from Skovshoved, Denmark's Little Lovely Inge, who, back in the 1930’s and 1940's, long before television overtook the entertainment of the entire population, was Denmark’s darling.
She died Wednesday march 9 2011 at home in New Jersey in the U.S. at the age of 86.
It was the contemporary sports voice in Danish Radio, Gunnar 'Nu' Hansen - and at that time there were no other stations - who called the swimming schoolgirl Inge Sorensen both small and lovely. And the description followed Inge Sorensen, later Inge Tabur through her marriage with engineer and swimming companion Janus Tabur throughout life.
Even today many people know the phrase "Little Lovely Inge" , .. without really knowing who's hiding behind the words.
Now she is dead The Girl from Skovshoved, who in summer of 1936 almost had to ask her parents to be allowed to participate in the Olympic swimming tournament in Berlin - Inge Sorensen was just a 12 year old schoolgirl when she was selected to represent Denmark. And when she came into the finals in the 200 meter breaststroke and was to win a medal, the words "lille, bedårende Inge" flew out of Gunnar 'Nu' Hansen’s mouth in the direct radio-transmission to the Danish living rooms.
Even today many people know the phrase "Little Lovely Inge" , .. without really knowing who's hiding behind the words.
Now she is dead The Girl from Skovshoved, who in summer of 1936 almost had to ask her parents to be allowed to participate in the Olympic swimming tournament in Berlin - Inge Sorensen was just a 12 year old schoolgirl when she was selected to represent Denmark. And when she came into the finals in the 200 meter breaststroke and was to win a medal, the words "lille, bedårende Inge" flew out of Gunnar 'Nu' Hansen’s mouth in the direct radio-transmission to the Danish living rooms.
And since she won the bronze medal, the enthusiastic radio reporter, by calling her "The Little Lovely", in fact created a myth.
Inge Sorensen’s performance - to become the youngest Olympic medallist through time - made her of course The Years Finding in Danish Sport in 1936, chosen by the newspaper Politikens sport magazine. And when I (RB) on behalf of Politiken many years later persuaded her to fly from the U.S., where she had lived for more than 50 years, and return to Copenhagen to be the guest of honour at a further The Years Finding in Danish Sport feast, I had to promise her, that we should drive straight from the airport to Østerbro Stadium. "I want to see Gunnar’s bust, he had me a dear friend”, explained the little adorable old dame, when I picked her up at Copenhagen Airport.
Inge Sorensen’s performance - to become the youngest Olympic medallist through time - made her of course The Years Finding in Danish Sport in 1936, chosen by the newspaper Politikens sport magazine. And when I (RB) on behalf of Politiken many years later persuaded her to fly from the U.S., where she had lived for more than 50 years, and return to Copenhagen to be the guest of honour at a further The Years Finding in Danish Sport feast, I had to promise her, that we should drive straight from the airport to Østerbro Stadium. "I want to see Gunnar’s bust, he had me a dear friend”, explained the little adorable old dame, when I picked her up at Copenhagen Airport.
The Girl from Skovshoved got her actual breakthrough just 11 years old in a sports world that looked very different than it does today.
"I practiced an hour a week in the swimming arena in Østerbro - the rest was in the harbour or on the beach in Skovshoved - where I was playing in the water with my mates and swam out to what I called my father's stone. And when made an extra effort, I could tell that “I made the stone two times”. I was a kind of talent by nature, living on the strength in my legs and barely noticing the water resistance, because I was so skinny. I had not the others' strength. Ooh, that sounds like bragging, who can stand to hear it. "
That’s what she told me when I returned in December 2006 to visit Inge and her husband in their house in New Jersey, a wooden house in a small forest in Mount Laurel. Here they lived their lives with Danish homemade rolled sausage and homemade rye bread, in The Garden State of New Jersey. In a house filled with Danish furniture and paintings of beech trees, the Danish beaches and fishermen’s lodgings.
However Inge preferred to sit in a Norwegian leather chair - the only “strange element“ in their self-built house. And when she was younger and fresher, she told me, it was the perfect place to say thanks for a good day in the company of a gin and tonic. “Ooh, that's my drink”, she exclaimed with a smile that witnessed on happy memories.
However Inge preferred to sit in a Norwegian leather chair - the only “strange element“ in their self-built house. And when she was younger and fresher, she told me, it was the perfect place to say thanks for a good day in the company of a gin and tonic. “Ooh, that's my drink”, she exclaimed with a smile that witnessed on happy memories.
But the house was also shadowed by the elderly couple’s great grief - namely the loss of their son, Allan, who had worked for the U.S. Coast Guard, and who had been aboard the family sailboat "Kristina" named after his daughter, when together they crossed the Atlantic to visit the Old Denmark, which they did three times. But suddenly one morning Allan did not wake up in his apartment.
One day, when I went for a walk with Inge in the garden, she grabbed my arm and stopped at the plant named “bleeding heart” - there were her son's ashes spread.
One day, when I went for a walk with Inge in the garden, she grabbed my arm and stopped at the plant named “bleeding heart” - there were her son's ashes spread.
AND THERE also half of the ashes of Little Lovely Inge will be spread. The rest is going to be sent to Denmark to the common grave on Ordrup Cemetery, where Inge Tabur's parents are buried.
The only thing to be left will be will be the memory of a little big figure in Danish sport. A tough woman, who until a few years ago did her gymnastics every day despite a fragile heart - and a woman who paid tribute to amateur sports, and as a protest against the increasing commercialization of sport sat her TV in the basement many years ago. She preferred the ravishing version.
The only thing to be left will be will be the memory of a little big figure in Danish sport. A tough woman, who until a few years ago did her gymnastics every day despite a fragile heart - and a woman who paid tribute to amateur sports, and as a protest against the increasing commercialization of sport sat her TV in the basement many years ago. She preferred the ravishing version.
RASMUS BECH
(translated PB)
 | Little Lovely Inge. Gunnar 'Now' Hansen's spontaneous remark has entered the Danish sports history. Here we see the protagonist during the Olympics in |
|
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar