A former figure skating champion will be remembered not only for her talent on the ice but also for her love and devotion to her family.

Yolande Jobin, from Barnes, died at the age of 80 in Switzerland last month after returning to her parent’s home country to look after them during their ill health 40 years ago.

Miss Jobin, the youngest of four children, was born in Richmond to Swiss immigrant parents in 1930. Her father Leon ran a watch importing business in Hatton Garden and her mother Marie stayed at home to look after the children.

The champion athlete showed a talent for sport at a young age, first picking up skates at the age of four while on the Yobin family’s annual winter holiday to the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Miss Jobin, who was also a keen pianist, grew up in Barnes where her mother, also an avid skater, encouraged her to pursue her natural talents and become an ice skater.

At the age of nine the talented skater started training at Richmond ice rink with champion coach Arnold Gerschweiler, and his brother, dedicating several days a week to honing her craft before starting to enter international competitions when she hit her teenage years.

Miss Jobin, who was often in demand as a model for companies like Nestle in her spare time, was rewarded for her focus and dedication when she was named Swiss ladies figure skating champion in 1951 and then competed in the Oslo Olympics in 1952.

Later in life, after having taken part in various European sporting championships, world championships and the Olympics, the former skater turned her attentions to coaching before giving up her career in the sixties to look after her ailing parents.

The devoted daughter moved with her mother and father back to Switzerland to look after them while they were ill and gave up her dreams of returning to professional skating in the process. Miss Jobin, who died of natural causes on October 11, never married and did not have children.