Ann Johnston

Ann Johnston was the only child of Dr. Harold W. “Johnnie” Johnston, a Toronto-based gynecologist and associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Toronto, and his wife, Anne Daley. Born and raised in Toronto, she attended primary and post-secondary schooling there where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in modern history from Trinity College, University of Toronto. She began figure skating at a very young age and became the youngest skater to pass the Preliminary Canadian Figures Skating Test at age five, and later the youngest skater to pass the Gold Canadian Figure Skating Test at 14. Johnston was selected for the Canadian national team to compete at the World Championships for three consecutive years beginning in 1954 (finishing in ninth place each year) before going to Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956 to compete at the Winter Olympic Games. There, she recorded another ninth place finish in the women’s singles event, three places behind her Canadian teammate Carole Jane Pachl. Johnston also was the runner-up to Pachl at the 1955 and 1956 Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

She later taught figure skating at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club in the late 1950s and served for several years as a judge in the figures, free skating, dance and pairs disciplines. Johnston was later awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the sport. She married Jeremy M. Colman in 1960; they had three children.