MOLONY (MASSINA), Patricia Muriel

24 AUGUST 1926 IN MELBOURNE, eldest daughter of Ted and Maffie Molony, and sister of Olympic skater Gweneth, Pat grew up in the family home at 21 Asling St Brighton in Melbourne. She began skating at Melbourne Glaciarium at the age of 5, [6] and gained the NISAA gold medal for figure skating at 13, the youngest person in Australia to ever achieve the highest standard. [6]

Molony attended Methodist Ladies College, [11] and by 1938 she was giving solo exhibitions in shows such as "A Night at the Tyrol" in the annual ice skating revues at the Glaciarium, along with contemporaries Pat Matthews and Betty Cornwall.

She was Pair Skating Champion of Victoria with Bill Taylor in 1939 and '40, and possibly other years. [6] She competed in the Nationals in Sydney in 1940 with Victorians Enid Shaw, Gwen Hallam, and Pat Matthews. [12] In 1946, she won the Victorian championship, and went to London to further her training with the renowned coach, Jacques Gerschweiler. She competed at the British Championships at Wembley Stadium on December 9 and 10. [9] Felix Kaspar considered Pat a "cracker" and expected her to place "among the first four or five". [13]

Molony would not "take the ice unless she was wearing a bracelet of Australian charms and a New Zealand tiki. She always wore the same red socks (inside out) in her boots and - like Cecilia Colledge and Daphne Walker nearly a decade prior - considered green her lucky colour, wearing it for both figures and free skating when she competed". [1]

She had her first experience skating in the open air at St Moritz Switzerland in January 1947, [11] then the European Championships in Davos. She competed in the World Championships in Stockholm from February 10th. Cyril Macgillicuddy attended as an ISA delegate and judge. [5] Later, she competed for the Great Prize in the Beskydy Mountains, Czechoslovakia, and back home in September, she scooped the rink to win both State and National Championships while still only 17.

In 1948, she won the Victorian Figure Skating Championships again, and married ice hockey player Alf Massina in the Scotch College Chapel. [3] Alfred Henry Massina, the only son of A W Massina of Hawthorn, captained the VIHA Wildcats ice hockey team.

In 1951, Molony skated in an Ice Revue and exhibitions with her sister Gwen at the new rink at Moonah in Tasmania, which her father Ted helped set up. [7] She gave a novelty cow-girl act with her sister for the opening number, and an exhibition dance with her father "which was more graceful than any ballroom dance". [7,8]

Molony judged the 1953 Victorian Women's Championships with D Broatch, a former champion, Max Jepperson, and Geoff Taylor. The contestants were Dawn Hunter (title holder), Nita Solomon, Kim Holland, and Marie Seymour. [2]

Pat Molony was Australia's first female competitor at the World Championships (Stockholm 1947 12th/19), and the European Championships (Davos 1947 16th/20). She is the only Australian skater to have ever competed at Europeans. She was inducted to the inaugural Ice Skating Australia Hall of Fame with her father Ted and sister Gweneth in 2004.