Thousands of miles away from home, Cecilia Colledge set a record that has stood the test of time.
Over four days in February 1932, Colledge was one of 16 women and girls figure skating at the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York.
Though she returned home from across the Atlantic without a medal draped around her neck, Colledge had achieved something arguably just as illustrious.
At 11 years and 73 days, she was not only the youngest to compete in her category but also the youngest Olympian in Team GB history - a record that stands to this day.
It was just the beginning.
First steps
Better known by her second name, Magdelena Cecilia Colledge was born to parents Lionel and Margaret in 1920 and the seeds for her future career were sown eight years later after a visit to the World Skating Championships in London alongside her mother.
Recalling that fateful day, Colledge was quoted by the Guardian: "It just sort of happened. My mother saw the skaters and said, 'That's what my little girl is going to do".
A year away from school in Norway followed ahead of a return to the English capital, where her mother recruited expert Swiss coach Jacques Gerschwiler - who oversaw changes to her training and diet alongside an acrobatics instructor called Miss Lee.
It was under the latter's tutelage that Colledge learned to backbend, using a rope tied around her waist with an overhead bar as a pulley - an experience she did not look back on fondly.
The Independent quoted her recollection: "They were my mother's idea. She took me every Wednesday afternoon to a woman in Streatham who had been a circus performer and she pulled me in every direction. I hated it. It hurt. But people liked the lovely spins I was eventually able to do."
She marked her first season of competition in 1931 by coming third in the British ladies' championship, enough to qualify for the 1932 Winter Olympics.
On the edge
Colledge finished eighth in those Games, breaking the record as Team GB's youngest ever Olympian, but the best was yet to come from the budding starlet.
Four years later she returned to Olympic contention, fresh off clinching her first British Championships and where she became the first woman to perform a salchow in competition.
She arrived in the twin villages of Garmisch-Partenkirchen on near-equal footing with the reigning Olympic champion Sonja Henie, having finished second to the Norwegian in the 1935 worlds.
It was the same story in Germany, with Colledge clinching silver, albeit in challenging circumstances having had to skate second out of 26 and initially to the wrong music.
She had kept her cool on the ice and was similarly level-headed in her immediate reaction to the judges' assessments.
She said: "The skaters have their job to do and the judges' theirs."
But decades later, Colledge appeared on television, expressing her regret over the result.
She said: "Who wears silver in the afternoon, when you are skating for gold? I wanted to wear my lovely, lucky green velvet outfit."
Henie retired after 1936, seemingly paving the way for Colledge's ascendancy but while she completed the sweep of British, European and World titles, the Briton never followed in the footsteps of her illustrious rival.
Defeat to compatriot and 1932 fellow alumnus Megan Taylor at the 1938 worlds preceded injury the following year, but any hopes of contention were soon dashed by the advent of war in Europe.
Hard times
The Second World War saw Colledge enlist with the Mechanised Transport Corps, driving an ambulance in London during the air raids.
She would end up surviving the most devastating conflict in human history but her beloved brother Maule was not so fortunate.
He had served with the Royal Air Force and was declared dead after he failed to return from a flight over Berlin in 1943.
His death had affected the Colledge clan greatly and The Independent reported that she would sometimes wear a brooch with the RAF insignia willed to her by a colleague of her brother's who also fell victim to the war.
She eventually moved to the United States after the war, where she lived out the rest of her life.
Full circle
Following a brief career as a professional and a sixth and final British championship in 1946, Colledge was offered a teaching position in Lake Placid, where her rise to fame had started all those years ago.
In total she had captured three European titles and a solitary World Championship and Olympic silver along with her victories on home rinks.
Yet Colledge's greatest achievements were her innovations on ice, inventing the camel spin and the layback spin along with the one-foot axel jump which now bears her name.
Between 1952 and 1995, she taught at the Skating Club of Boston and was eventually inducted to the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1980.
She lived to 87 before passing away in 2008.
Four days before her death, she was interviewed by the Lake Placid News about the 1932 Games but true to form, she downplayed her achievements.
She recalled: "I was only 11 at the time, so I don't remember a great deal. I was here to skate and I basically did what I was told."
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