Maria "Marie" Johanna Philipsen-Braun (22 June 1911 – 23 June 1982), also known as Zus Braun, was a Dutch swimmer. She competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and in 1932 in Los Angeles, winning a gold medal in the 100 m backstroke and a silver in the 400 m freestyle in 1928. She failed to reach the finals of these events at the 1932 Games due to a sudden illness during the preliminary heats. During her career Braun set six world and 25 national records.[1]
Braun was the daughter of the prominent Dutch swimming coach Ma Braun. She had her first international success at the 1927 European Championships, where she won one gold and two bronze medals in the 100 m and 4 × 100 m freestyle and 100 m backstroke. She won gold medals in these events at the next European championships in 1931. After these wins and her medals at the 1928 Olympics, Braun was a favorite at the 1932 Olympics. However after swimming 400 m heats she was hospitalized with a strong fever, and retired from swimming shortly after that.[2] In 1980, she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.[1]
Suspected poisoning
During the 1932 Olympic swimming competition in Los Angeles, Braun suddenly became very ill and was hospitalized for three weeks with a high fever.[3][4] When she returned to Nederlands, she gave a press statement stating that between events, she suddenly felt a pain in her leg and that two young American men who had been sitting in front of her in the stands and had been watching her suspiciously, "disappeared".[3][4] There was a suspicion this was linked to illegal gambling on the final events.[3][4]
^ abcEvans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Swimming at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games: Women's 100 metres Backstroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2021. The final saw Braun, roared on by the home crowd, survive a poor finish to hold off the challenge of King and her fellow Briton, [Joyce Cooper], to become the first Dutchwoman to win an individual Olympic event. Braun, whose mother was the coach to the Dutch team, attempted to defend her Olympic title four years later in Los Angeles but an apparent insect bite developed into a serious case of blood poisoning that kept her out of the final. After spending weeks in a Los Angeles hospital, Braun returned home to Rotterdam and gave a press conference where she alleged her illness was not caused by an insect but was the result of a deliberate attempt to injure her. Speculation involved a possible link to illegal betting. Another finalist in 1928 was the fourteen year old [Eleanor Holm] who began an international career that would veer between brilliance and controversy over the next decade.
^ abcGraham MacAree (22 February 2021). "That's Weird: Hey uh it kinda seems like this Olympic swimmer got poisoned by her rivals". sbnation.com. Retrieved 8 May 2021. ...According to Braun, whose presser was translated by Ruud Paauw in the 2001 Journal of Olympic History, on Aug. 9 she was watching the 400m men's freestyle final from a section of stands reserved for foreign Olympic participants when she noticed two "young Americans" who seemed both out of place and to be monitoring her closely. As the race ended, she stood up and felt a stab in her left leg. The two Americans ahead of her vanished from the scene... Aaaaand here is Braun's version of the story, which she told the Dutch press when she got back home: "It was impossible to swim on the afternoon of the final of the 100 metres backstroke. They gave me very hot and very cold baths, but that did not help. I got a heavy fever, 42 degrees [Celsius]. A Dutch doctor came to see me and said that I had to go to the hospital immediately. There, four doctors examined my leg. I heard one of them say: 'But this is not an infection'. Then they realized that I could understand English and walked away to discuss the case somewhere else. Suddenly, I remembered the stab in the swimming stadium and the two American men. It must have happened there."...According to Braun, whose presser was translated by Ruud Paauw in the 2001 Journal of Olympic History, on Aug. 9 she was watching the 400m men's freestyle final from a section of stands reserved for foreign Olympic participants when she noticed two "young Americans" who seemed both out of place and to be monitoring her closely. As the race ended, she stood up and felt a stab in her left leg. The two Americans ahead of her vanished from the scene. Over the course of the next day her leg started seizing up, and by the 12th — the date of the backstroke final — Braun was in hospital.
