Ruth Langer was born in Vienna. She started her swimming career at the age of eleven with the Hakoah Vienna Jewish sports club and at the age of 14 she already became a celebrity following her breaking of the Austrian records for the 100-meter freestyle and 400-meter freestyle. Having been selected to the Austrian national team for the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, she decided not to compete and thus to express her protest at the anti-Jewish persecutions in Nazi Germany. As a result, the Austrian sports authorities decided to sanction her by banning her from participating in sports competitions.
After the Anscluss, Langer fled to Italy crossing the border with false documents. She eventually was permitted to enter Great Britain, where she continued her swimming achievements by setting a British record for swimming the 5 mile event on the River Thames from Kew to Putney Bridge. As an “enemy national”, she was sent to Bath at the outbreak of WW2, but later returned to London where she married John Lawrence and spent the rest of her life. In 1995, the Austrian Swimming Federation decided to restore all her titles along with apologies for the discrimation she suffered during the 1930s.