In previous articles of this series telling of the lives and training of the world's best athletes who are also the world's most beautiful women, I have sought to show that a woman can not be really beautiful unless she has muscles. So few ladies realize that excercise or sports are the most important means to real beauty.

To be beautiful a woman must possess super health. This comes only through exercise, sufficient sleep, proper eating and the fine mind, the result of perfect health, lofty ideals and wholesome athletic activities.

To be considered really beautiful, sparkling eyes, sound teeth, healthy hair, clear smooth skin, a round column-like neck, an erect, lithe athletic posture and an attractive figure greatly outweigh even regular doll-like features that many have thought are sufficient to be considered beautiful.

I can give so many illustrations to prove my point. Tonight I will pass along to you facts about the life of Sonja Henie, a Norwegian girl now in America, who for ten consecutive years has been the world's champion figure skater. I am indebted to Harry Brand, Publicity Director of the 20th Century-Fox Films of Hollywood, for many of the facts in the following story.

As this is written, this Norwegian girl is giving an exhibition in a nearby city. Hundreds are being turned away at each nightly performance.

Her story reports the practice of her various girations on the ice, six to eight hours a day, day after day. No wonder she became graceful, developed a perfect body and super health. This attractive little lady, a sort of grown up Shirley Temple, is the best personification of the beautiful girl athlete I could write about this month.

Every woman can not spend hours each day in the practice of some athletic sport such as running, gymnastics, skating, tennis, golf, swimming or other similar endeavor. So many of them think they have a good excuse to completely neglect their bodies, to indulge their appetities, to sleep until a late hour - pastimes which rapidly breed poor health and lost youth. The healthful activity you give your body will control how you look and how you feel. If you exercise for hours each day as Sonja Henie does, eat anything you like and as much as you like. But if you don't get the exercise, it is just a question of time until you are fat and ailing. Much exercise permits the eating of more food. Less exercise less food. For fat shows that the body has a surplus. The ideal way for women to keep fit and beautiful is to eat moderately and to practice weight resistance exercise three or four times a week. But back to the story of Miss Henie.

Winter had been gone for two months when a terrific post-seasonal blizzard descended on Oslo, the capital of Norway, the night of April 8, 1913. By morning the streets were impassable, except for sleighs, and all exposed water in the city was covered with a thick layer of ice.

In the midst of the storm, a daughter was born to Selma Nilsen Henie, the wife of Wilhelm Henie, a fur merchant. Already the father of a son, Wilhelm Henie was pleased and asked friends what he should name his daughter. "Sonja," suggested an artist friend. "It will sound well to the public."

Ice and Sonja's artistry have carried her name to fame throughout the world. Ten-times World Figure-skating Champion, three times Olympic Champion, she is now under contract to 20th Century-Fox Studio, and has made her debut as an actess.

Strange it appears at first thought, that a girl should be transformed from ice-skater to actress all at once, even though she be blonde and attractive. But it isn't strange after the magnetic Sonja explains.

"Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be on the stage," she says. "First I wanted to be a ballet dancer, and I studied dancing until I was twenty years old. Ice skating is not alone a sport - it is an art, too. I have skated before hundreds of thousands of people. Ever since I began to skate I have been before the public. I tried to entertain the public - to put some of the beauty of the dance into my skating. Now I dance on skates instead of just skating.

"Many dancers are actresses. They prepare for their acting career by dancing. I have done the same. I do not wish nor intend to give up skating. It means too much to me, and I believe it is as beautiful and entertaining to people as dancing. But now I want to broaden myself, to carry my career another step forward with acting."

Sonja has an impulsive way of talking. Her eyes twinkle. Her face is expressive. She laughs frequently, and accompanies her words with gestures. She is hardly the picture of the "cool, reserved Scandinavian."

Sonja's mother, who accompanied her to Hollywood, explains this entirely un-Norwegian phase of Sonja's personality.

"My mother - Sonja's grandmother - was Irish," says Mrs. Henie. "That is why Sonja has brown eyes, instead of blue. That is why Sonja is - well, Sonja."

Sonja started being Sonja at the age of three. She danced and skipped almost continuously, her mother says. The little girl loved to wrap herself in drapes and pretend she was a dancer. At four, Sonja began to study dancing.

Thus, Sonja danced before she skated. She did not learn to skate until she was eight years old. Then, like any other youngster in Oslo in winter, she wanted a pair of skates for Christmas, so she could go to the Municipal Stadium with other children and skate too.

Sonja learned to skate just like the other beginners did - that is, she put on her skates, scooted out on the ice, and promptly fell down. She may have cried, too - she doesn't remember now. But she struggled for her stability and muscular co-ordination just as every child struggles when first upon the ice.

Once she found her legs, so to speak, Sonja knew she was always going to be happy while she skated. The other children raced on their skates, and even her own father would tell her about the time he was the second fastest speed skater in Europe, but Sonja was interested only in dancing on the ice. After she learned to skate, she paid even more attention to her ballet dancing.

The first winter, Sonja learned to skate. The second winter she started to win honors at figure skating. Nine years old, she won the Junior competition of the Oslo Skating Club. At 10 she won the competition again. At 11 she won the Norwegian championship and went to the Olympic games in Switzerland - just for the experience and without making any effort to win. By this time, she realized she had much to learn before she really began to skate in seriousness.

Sonja decided she needed a great deal of training before she undertook "serious competition" - she, who was already Norwegian champion! But she refused to enter competition the next year, and spent the winter in training, skating three hours in the morning and three or four hours in the afternoon. In 1926, at the age of thirteen, she undertook active competition again, and placed second in the world championship matches in Stockholm.

The next year, Sonja moved up from second place to the championship, replacing Helmr Szabo of Vienna, who had held the title for four years. Thus, at the age of 14, Sonja's dancing on ice had carried her to the World Figure-skating Championship. She has retained the title every year since. In 1928 she captured her Olympic championship, which she retained in 1932 and 1936.

Lest the uninitiate jump to the conclusion that "figure-skating" is just "making a lot of fancy curlycues on ice," it must be explained that figure-skating is one of the most arduous, dangerous and beautiful of sports. Generations of skaters have established certain classical figures with which to test their artistry. There are 80 championship figures which any championship competitor must be able to perform. The judges give each competitor six figures - and the skater does not know until the last minute which of the 80 these six will be.

Figure-skating is not a test of ingenuity in creating new figures, but of perfect execution of the 80 established figures. Sonja says that she spent three seasons practicing the "common" toe whirl before she would attempt it in public.

The sport is arduous and dangerous. Sonja must sleep at least ten hours a night to keep in condition, and she does not eat for four hours before an exhibition because the food would prove as upsetting to her as it does to an opera star - she must be completely alert and in control of every muscle and nerve in her body. The danger in skating comes, of course, from falls. No skater is immune to these, even Sonja. She has suffered nothing worse than a sprained ankle, although other skaters have broken bones and been even more seriously hurt.

Sonja worked hard for her success on the rink. When she was 18 she went to London and studied ballet dancing under the Russian, Madame Karsavina. Here Sonja translated the famous Dying Swan dance into a dance on skates - and her brilliant performance in London's Ice Palace drew a command show for King George and Queen Mary.

Sonja has been admired by royalty all over Europe. She has skated in command performances for the rulers of Sweden and Belgium, and, of course, before King Haakon VII of Norway. The Norwegian ruler sends her a telegram before every public appearance. In 1934, ex-Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Germany gave her his diamond stickpin crowned with the Hohenzollern crest.

Sonja has a "roomful" of silver cups, gold medals and plaques she has won in skating competitions. Her career has taken her all over Europe, and to the United States in 1929. Here she heard about the American custom of carrying a rabbit's foot for good luck, and she has carried one herself ever since.

Sonja returned to America in March of 1936 after winning this year's Olympic championship in Germany. Her first professional appearance in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden drew a capacity house, and every subsequent appearance in the United States has been sold out days in advance. She came to Hollywood, for instance, and rented a local skating rink. In five performances, she was seen by 20,000 spectators.