Born in Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay, she became the first ever European women's combined events champion when she won the pentathlon at the 1950 European Athletics Championships in Brussels. She won by a margin of more than 150 points ahead of Britain's Bertha Crowther and Olga Modrachová of Czechoslovakia. In spite of winning this high honour, she was ranked only twelfth globally for the event – the highest ranked athletes, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Aleksandra Chudina and Micheline Ostermeyer instead focused on competing in multiple individual events.