Skater Cecilia Colledge; Youngest Olympian

Cecilia Colledge, 87, an innovative British figure skater who was the youngest athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics, died April 12 at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass.

Her death was announced by Ben Wright, vice president of the Skating Club of Boston, where Ms. Colledge had taught for almost four decades. No cause of death was reported.

Magdalena Cecilia Colledge was 11 years and 3 months old when she competed for Britain in the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.

She won a silver medal at the 1936 Olympics in Germany, second to Sonja Henie.

Ms. Colledge was world champion in 1937, British champion five times and European champion three times.

She was the first woman to execute a double jump (a salchow), and she is credited with inventing the camel and layback spins and the one-foot axel jump.

She moved to the United States to coach and was a full-time teacher at the Skating Club of Boston from 1952 until 1977. She continued coaching part time until 1990, Wright said.

She was inducted into World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1980.

She never married and leaves no immediate survivors.