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About Colin Hickey
- Colin Edward Hickey (3 July 1931 – 13 January 1999) was an Australian speed skater.
- He represented Australia at the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Winter Olympics.
- His seventh place in the 1956 Winter Olympics was Australia's best result until 1976. He was born in Fairfield, Victoria. Hickey became a "rink rat" when his father took him to the Glaciarium in Melbourne.
- "I felt an affinity with it" he recalled, saying "To do it well is to feel like a bird flying." He earned the money to buy skates from selling newspapers.
- To get to the Glacarium from his place in Fairfield, he had to walk, take a bus and then a train.
- He tried ice hockey, but because of his small frame (he grew up to be 162 centimetres and weigh 56 kilograms), he was overlooked, and took up speed skating. He took a ship to Europe to reach the speed skating hub of Norway.
- He worked as a lumberjack, and learned to speak the local language.
- "We did it hard, lived maybe two weeks at a time on just museli.
- It was difficult, but I had some of the best times of my life then.
- What was good was that they [the Australian authorities] had no control over me.
- We just did it all by the seat of our pants.
- All they'd do was tell me what times I had to do to qualify for selection, and it would be up to me." He found changing from indoor skating in Australia to skating outside in Norway a major change "It was like going from ping-pong to lawn tennis, from dirt-track to Grand Prix ...
- the outdoor was so much more demanding, in terms of strength and technique." He said that conditions for Australian Winter Olympians used to be basic: We didn't get a uniform.
- I never had an Australian blazer once in three Olympics.
- In 1952, because King George had died, they issued us with a black armband and tie for the opening ceremony.
- Nothing else.
- You wore it with whatever you had.
- I had a green sweater and ski slacks.
- In 1956 I was issued with no gear at all, even though I was the best-performed member of the team by about a hundred per cent.
- I couldn't march without any kind of uniform, so I stayed in the hotel.
- In 1960 they gave us a duffle coat and a sweater and that covered everything you had.
- That was it.
- You had to look after yourself.Talking in 1993 about Sonnpark, a joint Australian-Austrian facility for winter and summer sports, he said "Yeah.
- It's great ...
- I reckon it would have made life a bit easier in the old days.
- With that sort of back-up, we'd have given them [the Europeans] a run for their money."
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