[2] Her mother, Jarmila née Pošíková, was an actress,[3][4] while her father, Jan Pachl,[5] was a wealthy chocolate manufacturer.

[6] Pachl and her mother resided for some time in England and St. Moritz, Switzerland, before the whole family moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

[6] Pachl enjoyed watching figure skating and began practicing seriously at the age of eight after her mother brought her before Swiss coach Arnold Gerschwiler in England.

Her club's president sponsored her early Canadian citizenship so that she could be sent to Lake Placid, New York to train under Gus Lussi when she was ten years old.

She repeated as the national champion the following season and was named in Canada's team to the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, where she placed sixth.