Patricia (Jones) Dalziel grew up in New Westminster and quickly established herself as a talented track and field athlete by winning the 60 yards, 100 yards, and long jump events in numerous Inter–High School Track meets between 1946-47. In 1948, she became the first Canadian high school athlete to compete and win at the Olympic Games.

At age sixteen in 1947, Pat was named Western Canada’s top junior girl sprinter. Also that year at the first annual Kinsmen’s International track meet, she won the 50 yards in 6.2 seconds and the 75 yards in 8.8 seconds. At the second annual meet, she won the junior girls 60 yards, open 100 yards, and anchored the relay team to a win. Later in 1947 she became BC high school champion in the 60 yards and 100 yards, tieing the provincial record of 7.3 seconds in the 60 yards.

At the 1948 Canadian Olympic zone trials at Brockton Point, Pat broke a sixteen-year-old record in the 100m running 12.1 seconds. She qualified to go to the Canadian nationals that were doubling as the Olympic Trials in Montreal that year. In Montreal, she won the 100m in 12.2 seconds and helped her 4x100m relay team win gold, setting a national record of 48.7 seconds in the process.

Pat anchored the 1948 Canadian women’s 4x100m relay team to a bronce medal in 47.8 seconds at the Olympic Games in London. In the 100m she won her preliminary heat in 12.7 seconds, placed second in 12.6 seconds in the semifinals, and finished fifth in the final.

In her final year at high school in Vancouver in 1949, Pat won the 100 yards in 11.1 seconds, at the time the best time ever for a high school athlete.

At the 1949 Canadian championships that doubled as the British Empire Games trials in Toronto, she placed third in the 100 yards and anchored the relay team to a first-place finish, thereby qualifying for the Canadian team that would travel to Auckland, New Zealand for the Games.
In Auckland, she helped the Canadian 660 yards relay team to a bronze medal.