PASFIELD, Michael

BORN IN 1961, he was two months off ten years-old when he started skating in group lessons in May 1970 while attending St Mel’s Campsie in Sydney, which was walking distance from Canterbury Ice Rink. "The benefit of being older," he once said "was that I remember how I was taught most of my elements. I am and will always be thankful for being taught with such ageless and accurate technique by my first coach, Jack Lee… My career spanned four main coaches, and training time overseas gave me input from the world’s best of the day".

His second coach Nita Solomon taught Jacques Gerschweiler’s technique, under whom she trained. Solomon took him to his first international in 1976. In Geneva, Switzerland, he trained with school figure champion, Karin Iten, competed in Mecurio Cuic in Romania, and placed 14th out of 21 skaters at the 1976 ISU Junior Championship.

His third coach, Gretchen Doolan, introduced him to John Nicks in California in 1977, and Gary Visconti who correctly predicted his figures were worth third place at Junior Worlds. He also worked with Terri Rudolf when she was 75. By 1977, training on-ice four-and-a-half to five-and-a-half hours each day, he won the Junior national title and placed third in the Figures and fourth overall at the ISU Junior Championship.

In 1978, after spraining an ankle three weeks before the Junior Worlds, he could only resume free skating a week before the competition. Placed seventh overall, the year the Ordinals System replaced the Points system, he finished second in the figures with more points than Vladimir Kotin who won that section. His father did not let him compete in 1979 while doing his last year at high school.

In 1980-1 he was the Open Men’s Champion of Australia and qualified for the 1981 World Championships in Hartford, Connecticut. He trained with Arthur Bourque at the The Skating Club of Wilmington in Delaware, and finished 18th in his first senior Worlds. He was also Australian national champion in 1981-2 and to prepare for his second Worlds, Ron Frank took him to Ennia Challenge Cup in The Hague, Netherlands; Prague Skate in Prague, Czechoslovakia; Golden Spin in Zagreb, Yugoslavia; and Worlds in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1982 where he finished 26th. Frank advised him to turn professional.

One of the first Australian men to master triple jumps in competition, showmanship was always vitally important to his skating, and he attributes most of the style to Jack Lee. His goal was always to get better, "attitude focused on performance and never results." Among the highlights of his skating career is his fifth placing in the World Professionals in Jaca, Spain, where he won Best Personal Presentation, and the shopping centre shows he skated with Pat Burley and his daughters, Sharon and Robyn.

"I have very fond memories working with these beautiful people. I skated with Pat at Dreamworld a few times". Never really serious about skating in a show overseas, he once turned down a spot with Disney On Ice after being called from America on the Thursday and asked to leave on the next Tuesday.

He is the father and coach of Zara Pasfield who won the Australian national ladies' title in 2012, and Katie Pasfield who is the 2017 and 2018 Australian Snr Ladies Figure Skating Bronze medallist, the 2016 Australian junior bronze medalist, and 2010 Singaporean primary champion. In 2004, he was inducted to the Ice Skating Australia Hall of Fame.


Sunway Pyramid Ice Rink Christmas Show, 19-20th Dec 2009.