SMALL GIRL WHO CAN SKATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 46, 24 February 1939, Page 3

SMALL GIRL WHO CAN SKATE

POTENTIAL CHAMPION POSSESSES NATURAL TALENT A little girl who, her parents and teachers believe, is destined to become a world ice-skating champion, arrived at Wellington on Monday by the Awatea, on a visit to her mother’s home in Timaru. She is 41-year-old Judy Lindsay, daughter of Mrs. Guy Lindsay, Sydney. Though it is less than six months since she first tried on skates, already she possesses a dancing and figure-skating repertoire of which the majority of professional skaters would be proud. One day last year Judy was taken to see a film of Sonja Henje, world

ice champion. She was delighted by the star's performance. “I can do that!” she declared. “Mummy, you must buy me a pair of skates and let me try.”

The child proved a born skater. Specially small boots had to be made, blades specially constructed, the smallest obtainable in England or Australia being fully two inches too long Once equipped, however, within eight weeks’ tuition by Mrs. Max Smith, Sydney, she was able to carry out all the ordinary types of figure skating, and to waltz, tango, fox-trot, and dance the blues. She has already given seven exhibitions in Sydney, to audiences of more than 1000 people. Judy is also a well-known young broadcasting artist in Australia, and has frequently sung over the air. She is engaged to make a film of her ice accomplishments when she returns to Sydney in June. She is expected to win the world ice-skating championship this year.

The little girl was the spoilt darling of the Awatea's company on the passage from Sydney. Captain Davey even allowed her on the hallowed precincts of the navigating bridge, and permitted her to steer the ship. She was photographed in the commander’s peaked cap, standing at the wheel, when the liner berthed at Wellington yesterday. The expressed a strong desire to swap her skates for the chromium greyhound at the liner’s foremast, emblematic of her speed, but in this the captain was obliged to refuse her whim.

Judy is a small brown-haired young person, with large brown eyes and a completely unselfconscious manner, neither shy nor precocious. She is visiting New Zealand with her mother on holiday, to build up her physique in the healthy New Zealand country air, so that she will be able to stand up to the rigorous demands of the athletic profession she has chosen for herself.