John Curry

John Curry Personal Info Country: United KingdomDate of birth: September 9, 1949(1949-09-09) Date of death: April 15, 1994(aged 44) Former Coach: Carlo Fassi, Gustav Lussi,
Arnold GerschwilerRetired: 1976

Olympic medal record Figure skatingGold 1976 Innsbruck Men's singles

For the hockey player, see John Curry (ice hockey).

John Curry (born 9 September 1949, died 15 April 1994) was a British figure skater. He was the 1976 Olympic and World Champion. He was famous for combining ballet and modern dance influences into his skating.

Biography

Curry was born on 9 September 1949 in Birmingham, England. He was educated at Solihull School, an Independent School in the West Midlands. As a child, Curry wanted to become a dancer, but his father disapproved of dance as an activity for boys, so instead at the age of 7 he began to take figure skating lessons. For the first several years, Curry's involvement with skating was rather casual. Curry's father died when he was 16; he then moved to London to study with Arnold Gerschwiler, who coached him to his first British title in 1971. In 1972, Curry found an American sponsor who enabled him to study in the United States with Gus Lussi and Carlo Fassi. Fassi coached him to European, World, and Olympic titles in 1976.

Curry was the flag bearer at the 1976 Winter Olympics for Great Britain. He also was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1976.

As an amateur competitor, Curry was noted for his ballet-like posture and extension, and his superb body control. Along with Canadian skater Toller Cranston, Curry was responsible for bringing the artistic and presentation aspects of men's figure skating to a new level. At the peak of his competitive career, Curry was also accomplished both at compulsory figures and the athletic (jumping) aspects of free skating. Curry's skating was unusual in that his jumps were performed counter-clockwise but most of his spins (except flying spins) were performed clockwise.

Following the 1976 World Championships, Curry turned professional and founded a touring skating company along the same lines as a traditional dance company. Besides choreographing routines for the company himself, Curry commissioned works from such noted dance choreographers as Peter Martins and Twyla Tharp. Curry was reportedly a difficult person to get along with, and a dispute with the business managers of his company forced it to suspend operations in the mid-1980s. After that, Curry performed only rarely in public.

Prior to the 1976 World Championships, Curry was outed as gay by a German tabloid newspaper, Bild-Zeitung. It caused a brief scandal in Europe at the time, but Curry's sexual orientation was generally ignored by the press and public for many years afterwards.

Curry's Broadway theatre credits include Icedancing (1978) as a performer and director and the 1980 revival of Brigadoon as an actor.

In 1987 Curry was diagnosed with HIV, and in 1991 with AIDS. Prior to his death, he spoke openly to the press about both his disease and his sexual orientation. He spent the last years of his life with his mother. He died of an AIDS-related heart attack on 15 April 1994 in Binton; he was 44 years old. A recent biography of actor Alan Bates claimed that Curry and Bates had a two-year affair, and that Curry died in Bates' arms.[1]

Competitive highlights

Event 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 Winter Olympic Games11th 1st World Championships14th 9th 4th 7th 3rd 1st European Championships12th 7th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st

References

^ Spoto, Donald. "Alan Bates's secret gay affair with ice skater John Curry", Daily Mail, 19 May 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-08.

Preceded by
David Steele BBC Sports Personality of the Year
1976 Succeeded by
Virginia Wade

v • d • e Olympic champions in figure skating – Men's singles

1908: Ulrich Salchow · 1920: Gillis Grafström · 1924: Gillis Grafström · 1928: Gillis Grafström · 1932: Karl Schäfer · 1936: Karl Schäfer · 1948: Dick Button · 1952: Dick Button · 1956: Hayes Alan Jenkins · 1960: David Jenkins · 1964: Manfred Schnelldorfer · 1968: Wolfgang Schwarz · 1972: Ondrej Nepela · 1976: John Curry · 1980: Robin Cousins · 1984: Scott Hamilton · 1988: Brian Boitano · 1992: Viktor Petrenko · 1994: Alexei Urmanov · 1998: Ilia Kulik · 2002: Alexei Yagudin · 2006: Evgeni Plushenko

v • d • e World champions in figure skating – Men's singles

1896: Gilbert Fuchs · 1897: Gustav Hügel · 1898: Henning Grenander · 1899–1900: Gustav Hügel · 1901–1905: Ulrich Salchow · 1906: Gilbert Fuchs · 1907–1911: Ulrich Salchow · 1912–1913: Fritz Kachler · 1914: Gösta Sandahl · 1922: Gillis Grafström · 1923: Fritz Kachler · 1924: Gillis Grafström · 1925–1928: Willy Böckl · 1929: Gillis Grafström · 1930–1936: Karl Schäfer · 1937–1938: Felix Kaspar · 1939: Graham Sharp · 1947: Hans Gerschwiler · 1948–1952: Richard Button · 1953–1956: Hayes Alan Jenkins · 1957–1959: David Jenkins · 1960: Alain Giletti · 1962: Donald Jackson · 1963: Donald McPherson · 1964: Manfred Schnelldorfer · 1965: Alain Calmat · 1966–1968: Emmerich Danzer · 1969–1970: Tim Wood · 1971–1973: Ondrej Nepela · 1974: Jan Hoffmann · 1975: Sergey Volkov · 1976: John Curry · 1977: Vladimir Kovalev · 1978: Charles Tickner · 1979: Vladimir Kovalev · 1980: Jan Hoffmann · 1981–1984: Scott Hamilton · 1985: Alexander Fadeyev · 1986: Brian Boitano · 1987: Brian Orser · 1988: Brian Boitano · 1989–1991: Kurt Browning · 1992: Viktor Petrenko · 1993: Kurt Browning · 1994–1995: Elvis Stojko · 1996: Todd Eldredge · 1997: Elvis Stojko · 1998–2000: Alexei Yagudin · 2001: Evgeni Plushenko · 2002: Alexei Yagudin · 2003–2004: Evgeni Plushenko · 2005–2006: Stéphane Lambiel · 2007: Brian Joubert · 2008: Jeffrey Buttle

v • d • e European champions in figure skating – Men's singles

1891: Oskar Uhlig · 1892–1894: Eduard Engelmann Jr. · 1895: Tibor von Foldvary · 1898–1900: Ulrich Salchow · 1901: Gustav Hügel · 1904: Ulrich Salchow · 1905: Max Bohatsch · 1906–1907: Ulrich Salchow · 1908: Ernst Herz · 1909–1910: Ulrich Salchow · 1911: Per Thorén · 1912: Gösta Sandahl · 1913: Ulrich Salchow · 1914: Fritz Kachler · 1922–1923: Willy Böckl · 1924: Fritz Kachler · 1925–1928: Willy Böckl · 1929–1936: Karl Schäfer · 1937–1938: Felix Kaspar · 1939: Graham Sharp · 1947: Hans Gerschwiler · 1948: Richard Button · 1949: Edi Rada · 1950: Ede Király · 1951–1952: Helmut Seibt · 1953–1954: Carlo Fassi · 1955–1957: Alain Giletti · 1958–1959: Karol Divín · 1960–1961: Alain Giletti · 1962–1964: Alain Calmat · 1965–1968: Emmerich Danzer · 1969–1973: Ondrej Nepela · 1974: Jan Hoffmann · 1975: Vladimir Kovalev · 1976: John Curry · 1977–1979: Jan Hoffmann · 1980: Robin Cousins · 1981: Igor Bobrin · 1982–1983: Norbert Schramm · 1984: Alexander Fadeyev · 1985–1986: Jozef Sabovčík · 1987–1989: Alexander Fadeyev · 1990–1991: Viktor Petrenko · 1992: Petr Barna · 1993: Dmitri Dmitrenko · 1994: Viktor Petrenko · 1995: Ilia Kulik · 1996: Viacheslav Zagorodniuk · 1997: Alexei Urmanov · 1998–1999: Alexei Yagudin · 2000–2001: Evgeni Plushenko · 2002: Alexei Yagudin · 2003: Evgeni Plushenko · 2004: Brian Joubert · 2005–2006: Evgeni Plushenko · 2007: Brian Joubert · 2008: Tomáš Verner

v • d • e BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners1954-1959

1954 Christopher Chataway · 1955 Gordon Pirie · 1956 Jim Laker · 1957 Dai Rees · 1958 Ian Black · 1959 John Surtees

1960-1969

1960 David Broome · 1961 Stirling Moss · 1962 Anita Lonsbrough · 1963 Dorothy Hyman · 1964 Mary Rand · 1965 Tom Simpson · 1966 Bobby Moore · 1967 Henry Cooper · 1968 David Hemery · 1969 Ann Jones

1970-1979

1970 Henry Cooper · 1971 HRH The Princess Anne · 1972 Mary Peters · 1973 Jackie Stewart · 1974 Brendan Foster · 1975 David Steele · 1976 John Curry · 1977 Virginia Wade · 1978 Steve Ovett · 1979 Sebastian Coe

1980-1989

1980 Robin Cousins · 1981 Ian Botham · 1982 Daley Thompson · 1983 Steve Cram · 1984 Jayne Torvill / Christopher Dean · 1985 Barry McGuigan · 1986 Nigel Mansell · 1987 Fatima Whitbread · 1988 Steve Davis · 1989 Nick Faldo

1990-1999

1990 Paul Gascoigne · 1991 Liz McColgan · 1992 Nigel Mansell · 1993 Linford Christie · 1994 Damon Hill · 1995 Jonathan Edwards · 1996 Damon Hill · 1997 Greg Rusedski · 1998 Michael Owen · 1999 Lennox Lewis

2000-2009

2000 Steve Redgrave · 2001 David Beckham · 2002 Paula Radcliffe · 2003 Jonny Wilkinson · 2004 Kelly Holmes · 2005 Andrew Flintoff · 2006 Zara Phillips · 2007 Joe Calzaghe

PersondataNAME Curry, John ALTERNATIVE NAMES SHORT DESCRIPTION British figure skater DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1949PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham, EnglandDATE OF DEATH April 15, 1994PLACE OF DEATH Binton, England