Carolyn Krau

Carolyn Krau started skating at the age of seven. When she was 11 she teamed up with Rodney Ward and would practice each morning before going to school in Kensington. They had only been skating together for less than two years when they finished second to Joyce Coates and Tony Holles at the British Pairs Championship, having won the junior title earlier in 1955.

Selected for the 1956 Cortina Olympics, Krau and Ward finished last out of 11 starters. With a combined age of 27 years 160 days, however, they were the youngest pair in the competition, and Krau was the youngest Briton at the Games. Going into Paris 2024, she remains the youngest British competitor, Summer or Winter, since the end of World War II, at the age of 12 years 169 days. Krau was also one of the shortest Olympians at four feet six inches (137cm)

Krau and Ward competed in the 1956 and 1958 World, and European Championships but without a podium finish. They were runners-up again to Coates and Holles in the British Championship in the 1957/58 season. Ward had injured his knee at the end of the 1955/56 season and Krau skated in singles competition and won the British Junior Women’s Championship in March 1957 (Ward won the junior men’s title that year). She teamed up with Ward again and the month after winning the junior singles titles the pair won the Southern Counties title in their first competition together for a year.

Following the death of Ward’s mother, Krau was left without a partner and once again skated in singles events and finished third in the British Championships in the 1958/59 season and was second the following season and third again in 1960/61. Between 1958-60 Krau was also runner-up three years in succession in the coveted Richmond Trophy. She also appeared in the 1958 and 1960 European Championships and the Worlds in 1958 but, again, there was no podium finish. She was selected for her second Winter Games at Squaw Valley in 1960 and finished 19th in the singles.