Cecilia Colledge

Olympic medal record
Figure skating
Silver	1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Ladies' singles

Cecilia Colledge

Personal information
Full name	Magdelena Cecilia Colledge
Country represented	United Kingdom
Born	28 November 1920(1920-11-28) London
Died	12 April 2008(2008-04-12) (aged 87) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Former coach	Jacques Gerschwiler Eva Keats
Medal record Competitor for United Kingdom Ladies' Figure skating Olympic Games Silver 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Ladies' singles World Championships Silver 1938 Stockholm Ladies' singles Gold 1937 London Ladies' singles Silver 1935 Vienna Ladies' singles European Championships Gold 1939 London Ladies' singles Gold 1938 St. Moritz Ladies' singles Gold 1937 Prague Ladies' singles Silver 1936 Berlin Ladies' singles Bronze 1935 St. Moritz Ladies' singles Silver 1933 London Ladies' singles

Magdelena Cecilia Colledge (28 November 1920 – 12 April 2008) was a British figure skater. She was the 1936 Olympic silver medalist, the 1937 World Champion, the 1938-1939 European Champion, and a six-time (1935–1938, 1946) British national champion.

Colledge is credited as being the first female skater to perform a double jump, as well as being the inventor of both of the camel spin and the layback spin.

Biography

Cecilia Colledge grew up in London. Her father, Lionel, was a throat surgeon. Her brother Maule was in the Royal Air Force and died during World War II.

Colledge began skating after watching the 1928 World Figure Skating Championships, which were held in London. Reports differ on her influence to begin skating; some state that she was inspired by Sonja Henie, others that Colledge's mother, Margaret, met the mother of Maribel Vinson, who also competed at those World Championships, and this meeting between the mothers inspired Colledge's mother to begin Cecilia in figure skating.

She was coached by Eva Keats and Jacques Gerschwiler.

At age eleven years and four months, Colledge represented Great Britain at the 1932 Winter Olympics, where she became the youngest Olympic figure skater. She placed 8th in the event.

She won the silver medal at the 1933 European Figure Skating Championships. She won her first British national title in 1935. She won the bronze medal at the 1935 European Figure Skating Championships and the silver medal at the 1935 World Figure Skating Championships.

In 1936, she won her second national title and her second Europeans silver medal. At the 1936 European Figure Skating Championships, Colledge landed a double salchow jump, becoming the first woman to perform a double jump in competition. At age fifteen, she represented Great Britain at the 1936 Winter Olympics, where she won the silver medal behind Sonja Henie. Indeed, she was very unlucky to lose out to Henie and finished a very close second to her. After the school figures section, Colledge and Henie were virtually neck and neck with Colledge trailing by just a few points. As Sandra Stevenson recounted in her article in The Independent on 21 April 2008, "the closeness [of the competition] infuriated Henie, who, when the result for that section was posted on a wall in the competitors' lounge, swiped the piece of paper and tore it into little pieces. The draw for the free skating [then] came under suspicion after Henie landed the plum position of skating last, while Colledge had to perform second of the 26 competitors. The early start was seen as a disadvantage, with the audience not yet whipped into a clapping frenzy and the judges known to become freer with their higher marks as the event proceeded. Years later, a fairer, staggered draw was adopted to counteract this situation".

There were two British Championships held in 1937 and Colledge won both of them. She won her first European title at the 1937 European Figure Skating Championships and her first World title at the 1937 World Figure Skating Championships. The following year, Colledge won a fifth national title, a second European title, and won the silver medal at the 1938 World Figure Skating Championships. Writing in 1938, T.D. Richardson (author of Modern Figure Skating and Ice Rink Skating) said "Her Free Skating Programme is by far the most difficult attempted by anyone, man or woman, in the Skating World, but she brings off these staggeringly difficult combinations of jumps and spins with such ease and sureness and at such speed that even experts are sometimes deceived as to the real worth of her programme."

In 1939, she won a third European title, but was unable to compete at the 1939 World Figure Skating Championships because of a strained achilles tendon.

During World War II, there were no skating competitions. Colledge drove an ambulance in the Motor Transport Corps during the London Blitz. Following the war, she returned to competitive skating and won the British national title for the sixth and final time. After she turned professional, she won the 1947 and 1948 Open Professional Championship.

She moved to the United States in 1951 and became a coach in Boston. She coached at the Skating Club of Boston between 1952 and 1977. Among her students were Albertina Noyes, Paul McGrath, and Ron Ludington.

She was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1980.

Colledge died on 12 April 2008 at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Innovations

At the 1936 European Figure Skating Championships, Colledge became the first female skater to land a two rotation jump in competition when she landed a double salchow.

She is credited as being the inventor of the camel spin along with its catchfoot variation^{[citation needed]} and the layback spin. Although not named after her, she was one of the first skaters who transitioned from a layback spin to a one hand Biellmann spin in her free programs.^{[citation needed]}

She also invented the one-foot axel jump, which is also known as the Colledge.

Competitive highlights

Event/Season	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939	1946
Winter Olympics	8th				2nd
World Championships	8th	5th		2nd		1st	2nd
European Championships		2nd		3rd	2nd	1st	1st	1st
British Championships	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st

Further reading

• E.R. Hall & T.D. Richardson - Champions all: camera studies by E.R. Hall (Frederick Muller, 1938)
• Richardson T.D - Modern Figure Skating (Methuen, 1938)

References

• ISU Official Results: European Figure Skating Championships: Ladies ResultsPDF (8.97 KB)
• ISU Official Results: World Figure Skating Championships: Ladies ResultsPDF

External links

• Obituary: Times
• Obituary: Guardian