Nora Tausz Rónai

Nora Tausz Rónai
Rónai in 1940
Born (1924-02-29) 29 February 1924
Fiume, Italy
Alma materFederal University of Rio de Janeiro
OccupationsHolocaust survivor, architect, writer and swimmer
SpousePaulo Rónai (m. 1952, d. 1992)

Nora Tausz Rónai (born 29 February 1924) is a Brazilian holocaust survivor, architect, writer and masters swimmer. After a career in as a professor of descriptive geometry, she began competing internationally as a Masters swimmer in 1993. She has won 13 gold medals and has broken both national and regional records for her age group.

Family and early life

Rónai was born on 29 February 1924 in Fiume (at the time in Italy, now Rijeka, in Croatia).[1][2] She spent four years living in Budapest as a child, and spoke Fiumano (a Venetian dialect), Italian and Hungarian in the family home.[3]

Rónai's father, Edoardo Tausz, was president of a Hungarian insurance agency,[4] and her mother was Jolán Kápolnai.[5] Her aunt Marta was a concert pianist.[1] Rónai's parents had been born to Italo-Magyar Jewish families and her maternal grandfather was an observant Jew.[1][3][6] Due to a family feud, her father converted to Catholicism.[6]

After the Italian racial laws were passed in 1938, Rónai and her brother were forbidden from attending school.[4] She had been in training to become a concert pianist.[7] When Italy joined the Axis powers and entered World War II, Jewish men in Fiume were rounded up and her father and brother were sent to a detention camp in Torretta.[4] Her family were stripped of their Italian citizenship,[3] as the laws were based race, not religion.[6] Rónai's mother appealed to a Catholic priest, who was able to free the Tausz men after two months.[3] The Vatican had made 3,000 visas available for Jewish converts to Catholicism to emigrate to Brazil, so Rónai and her family fled to Rio de Janeiro in 1941, when she was aged 17.[4] She became a Brazilian citizen.[1]

Life in Brazil

Rónai studied architecture at the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU) [pt], part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, from 1945 to 1950.[2] She then worked as a professor of descriptive geometry in the Department of Analysis and Representation of Form from 1951 and 1979.[2][8]

Rónai married philologist, translator and writer Paulo Rónai in civil ceremony in February 1952.[1][3] She had designed one of the covers of his books.[9] They had two daughters together, Cora Rónai and Laura Rónai.[10] Her husband died in 1992, aged 85.[11]

Swimming

In the 1950s, Rónai was the Rio de Janeiro champion in diving.[12] She featured on the cover of Seleções Esportivas magazine in January 1950.[12]

After the death of her husband While in her 60s, Rónai took up swimming and was invited compete for Icaraí Regatta Club.[12] She began competing internationally as a Masters swimmer in 1993,[5] made her debut in the South American swimming championships in Belo Horizonte, Brazil,[12] and made her World Championship debut in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1994.[5][13]

Rónai has won 13 gold medals[3] and has broken both national and regional records for her age group in her swimming career.[14] At the 2014 World Aquatics Masters Championships, she swam the 200m butterfly stroke in under nine minutes, setting a record and becoming the oldest swimmer to ever compete in the event.[6] She trains four times a week.[12]

Awards

Rónai was named a BBC 100 Woman in 2017.[13][15][16] She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2024.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Indrimi, Natalia (5 March 2020). "From Fiume to Rio: Nora Tausz Ronai". Printed_Matter. Archived from the original on 11 October 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Dias, Maria Angela (8 March 2024). "Homenagem da FAU à Nora Tausz Rónai". Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (FAU) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 10 August 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Gilban, Marcus M. (15 September 2022). "Swimming champion still competing at 98". Texas Jewish Post. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d Theodoulou, Noelle (23 September 2022). "Holocaust Survivor Nora Tausz Ronai Persists in Her Masters Swim Career at 98". SwimSwam. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  5. ^ a b c "Aos 90 anos, vovó da natação conquista seis medalhas de ouro no Mundial do Canadá". O Globo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 8 August 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d Gilban, Marcus M. (8 September 2022). "Holocaust survivor and Brazilian swimming champion still competing at 98". Ynetglobal. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  7. ^ Flute Talk. Vol. 25. Instrumentalist Company. 2005. p. 7.
  8. ^ Rónai, Nora; Sandroni, Laura (9 April 2014). O roubo da varinha de condão e outras historias (in Brazilian Portuguese). Nova Fronteira. ISBN 978-85-209-3850-8.
  9. ^ Motta, Cezar (16 November 2020). Por trás das palavras: As intrigas e disputas que marcaram a criação do dicionário Aurélio, o maior fenômeno do mercado editorial brasileiro (in Brazilian Portuguese). Editora Máquina de Livros. ISBN 978-65-86339-04-8.
  10. ^ Rónai, Paulo; Martins, Ana Cecilia Impellizieri; Spiry, Zsuzsanna (24 September 2020). Rosa & Rónai: O universo de Guimarães Rosa por Paulo Rónai, seu maior decifrador (in Brazilian Portuguese). Bazar do Tempo Produções e Empreendimentos Culturais LTDA. ISBN 978-85-69924-81-4.
  11. ^ Guerini, Andréia (30 March 2006). "Paulo Rónai". Dicionário de tradutores literários no Brasil (DITRA) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 13 December 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  12. ^ a b c d e Santana, Maya (27 December 2022). "Nora Rónai é inspiração para todas as idades". 50emais (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 7 November 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  13. ^ a b Demrdash, Dina (23 October 2017). "The 93-year-old swimmer still winning medals". BBC News. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  14. ^ Chircoff, Mauro (8 September 2022). "Nora Tausz Ronai: la sobreviviente del Holocausto que compite como nadadora". Cadena Judía (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 17 February 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  15. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2017: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 27 September 2017. Archived from the original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  16. ^ "Nora Rónai, 93 anos, nadadora, homenageada pela BBC". Portal do Envelhecimento (in Brazilian Portuguese). 16 October 2017. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
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