Pat Moody

Richmond Canoe Club’s Pat Moody was one of just three canoeists to represent Great Britain at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics; the other two Ray Blick and Brian Bullivant were also Richmond members. It was Moody who had the best finish of the three, with a seventh place in the kayak singes 500 metres.

Moody only took up canoeing in late 1952 after joining Richmond and soon afterwards won the women’s international kayak pairs race, with Margaret White, at the 1953 Serpentine Regatta in Hyde Park. Moody then went to Germany to compete in the West European Championships in Duisberg and finished fourth. Also in 1953 she won the first of four consecutive British women’s kayak singes 500m titles, and also won that year’s K2 national title with Sylvia Andrews.

Coached at Richmond by the former Austrian world champion and Olympian Max Raub, Moody went to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and reached the final of the kayak singes over 500 metres, placing seventh. Moody, who was also a keen hockey player with the Esher Saxons, got married in at the end of the 1957 canoeing season and soon afterwards started a family.