Crewing the Swiss yacht Lérina, she won Race One of the 1–2 ton class at Meulan-en-Yvelines, becoming the first female Olympic champion and gold medalist in history.
On May 22, 1900, during the sailing competitions of the 1900 Paris Olympic Games, Hélène de Pourtalès crewed aboard the Swiss yacht Lérina, owned and skippered by her husband, Count Hermann de Pourtalès, in the first race of the 1–2 ton class held on the Seine at Meulan-en-Yvelines. The Lérina's crew, including Hélène, secured victory in this race, and with it, she earned an Olympic gold medal.
This achievement made her the first woman in history to become an Olympic champion and the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal. It occurred at the second modern Olympic Games, only the first at which women were permitted to compete at all — a mere 22 women took part among 997 total athletes. Sailing, with its mixed-crew format, was among the very first sports to allow women to compete directly alongside men, providing an early and unusual opening for female participation in an era when women's athletics was largely restricted or nonexistent at the Olympic level.
Her victory predates any other individual woman's Olympic title and stands as a foundational moment in the history of women in sport. It also marked the first participation of a Swiss woman at the Olympic Games. The achievement remains a touchstone in discussions of gender and the Olympic movement, cited by the IOC, Guinness World Records, and Olympic historians as the definitive first for female Olympic glory.