Mieken Rieck

Mieken Rieck was one of the best German female tennis players prior to World War I. Her greatest success was winning the World Hard Court Championships in Paris in 1913 after reaching the final the year before, playing both times against Marguerite Broquedis. She was the German national tennis champion nine times including two times German outdoor titles in the ladies’ singles (1910, 1911). Rieck was not allowed to compete in international championships until she turned 17 in 1909. During the next years, she won international championships in Germany, Austria, and Denmark. From 1911-14 she played at Wimbledon. At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics she was entered in the ladies’ singles and – together with the men’s singles bronze medalist Oskar Kreuzer – in the mixed doubles, but did not play in either event. After World War I she played until 1927 under her married name Galvao.

In addition to tennis, her second love was hockey. After finishing her active career, Rieck acted as the women’s officer of the German Hockey Federation from 1929 to 1945. In 1935 she donated the Eichenschild trophy, a challenge prize for women’s regional federation teams, which was contested until 1987. She served as the President of the women’s committee in the International Hockey Federation (FIH) from 1930 to 1945.