Information about John Curry

Olympic medal record
Figure skating
Gold	1976 Innsbruck	Men's singles

John Curry (1949-1994) 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. 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.

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.

Competitive highlights

Event	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976
Winter Olympic Games			11th				1st
World Championships	-	14th	9th	4th	7th	3rd	1st
European Championships	12th	7th	5th	4th	3rd	2nd	1st

References

• The Real John Curry
• Upholding the Tradition of Excellence
• On this day - 1976: John Curry skates to Olympic gold

Navigation

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

•  • [ e] BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners

1954: Christopher Chataway 1955: Gordon Pirie 1956: Jim Laker 1957: Dai Rees 1958: Ian Black 1959: John Surtees 1960: David Broome 1961: Stirling Moss 1962: Anita Lonsborough 1963: Dorothy Hyman 1964: Mary Rand 1965: Tom Simpson 1966: Bobby Moore 1967: Henry Cooper 1968: David Hemery 1969: Ann Jones 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: Robin Cousins 1981: Ian Botham 1982: Daley Thompson 1983: Steve Cram 1984: Torvill & Dean 1985: Barry McGuigan 1986: Nigel Mansell 1987: Fatima Whitbread 1988: Steve Davis 1989: Nick Faldo 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: Steve Redgrave 2001: David Beckham 2002: Paula Radcliffe 2003: Jonny Wilkinson 2004: Kelly Holmes 2005: Andrew Flintoff 2006: Zara Phillips