Countess Hélène de Pourtalès (born Helen Barbey; April 28, 1868 – November 2, 1945) was an American-born Swiss sailor who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris representing Switzerland and became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

[5] Her sister Eva was married to André Poupart, Baron de Neuflize in 1903, the older brother of Roberte Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough.

[8] Her family included her uncle Pierre Lorillard IV;[9][10] aunt Catherine Lorillard;[11][12][13] uncle George Lyndes Lorillard,[14] who married Marie Louise La Farge, the daughter[citation needed] of John La Farge and the sister[citation needed] of Christopher Grant La Farge, who later became the Countess de Agreda after she married Count de Agreda;[15][16] and Louis Lasher Lorillard, who married Katherine Livingston Beeckman,[17] sister of Governor Robert Livingston Beeckman.

[19] From his first marriage, de Pourtalès became the stepmother of Count Guy de Pourtalès (1881–1941), the author, and Count Raimond Pourtalès (1882–1914), attache of the German embassy, who married Countess Luise Alexandra von Bernstorff (1888–1971), daughter of Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador to the United States[23] in 1911.

[24] The wedding, which took place in Washington, D.C., was attended by William Howard Taft, who was then the president of the United States.