As Laura Cumming writes about Paris 1924, "The show fizzes with surprises. Here is Alexander Calder’s lithe wire figure of the American tennis champion Helen Wills balancing on one toe to return a ball, like a sketch in midair". At the 1924 Olympics, Helen Wills (1905-98) won gold in the singles and gold in the doubles with her coach, Hazel Wightman. She was the first American woman athlete to become a global celebrity, and was admired for her grace and fluidity, captured here in this wire sculpture made in 1927.