QUEENS, New York - Gretel Bergmann, one of the pioneering Olympic champions, has died. She was a German Jewish track and field athlete who competed as a high jumper during the 1930s. In 1930 she joined Ulmer FV 1894, winning her first title in high jumping in 1931 when, during the South German Championships, she jumped 1.51 metres. She won that same title again in 1932. After the Nazis' ascension to power on 30 January 1933 she was expelled from the club for being Jewish. That April her parents sent her to the United Kingdom where in 1934 she took part in the British Championships and won the high jump with a height 1.55 metres. The German government wanted her to return to Germany in order to help portray the nation as a liberal-minded, tolerant country. She won the Württembergian Championships in the high jump in 1935. and on 30 June 1936, one month prior to the opening of the Olympic Games, tied the German record by crossing 1.60 metres. However, because of her Jewish origins, the Nazis prevented her from taking part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which kicked off the following month. In 1937 she left Germany forever. Bergmann turned 100 in April 2014 at her home in Queens, New York City, New York. Bergmann, a native of the German town of Laupheim, was 103.