John Curry (figure skater)

John Curry
nation	United Kingdom
birthday	September 9, 1949
place of birth	Birmingham
date of death	April 15, 1994
Place of death	Stratford upon Avon
Career
discipline	Single run
Trainer	A. Gerschwiler, Lussi, Fassi
End of career	1976
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 1 × 0 × 1 × EM medals 1 × 1 × 1 ×
winter Olympics gold Innsbruck 1976 Men's  World figure skating championships bronze Colorado Springs 1975 Men's gold Gothenburg 1976 Men's  European figure skating championships bronze Zagreb 1974 Men's silver Copenhagen 1975 Men's gold Geneva 1976 Men's

John Curry (born September 9, 1949 in Birmingham , England , † April 15, 1994 in Stratford-upon-Avon ) was a British figure skater who started in a single run . He is the Olympic champion of 1976 , the world champion of 1976 and the European Champion of 1976 .

Athletic career

As a child, Curry wanted to become a dancer, but his father, an engineer and entrepreneur, did not see it as a suitable activity for a boy. So Curry started figure skating at the age of seven, which his father now financed. In the first few years he pursued the sport rather occasionally. When he was 16 years old, his father died, after which Curry went to London to take lessons with Arnold Gerschwiler , who made him British champion in 1971. In 1972 Curry found an American sponsor who made him financially independent and allowed him to go to the USA to train with the best coaches, Carlo Fassi and Gustave Lussi .

Since 1970 Curry has increased continuously until he won his first bronze medal at the 1974 European Championship . The following year he was runner-up in Europe behind Vladimir Kovalev and third at the World Cup . In 1976 he reached the peak of his career. Under the direction of Carlo Fassi, he became European , world and Olympic champions . He was also the flag bearer for Great Britain at the Olympic Games. He was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year , UK Sportsman of the Year.

After his total triumph, he ended his career and founded a figure skating company, for which he choreographed himself and commissioned work with dance choreographers such as Peter Martins and Twyla Tharp . A dispute with the managing directors of his company led to the shutdown in the mid-eighties. After that, curry rarely appeared in public.

Curry directed Icedancing (1978) at the Broadway Theater and was an actor in the Brigadoon revival .

Curry was known for his ballet-like posture and movement, as well as his great body control. Together with Toller Cranston , he set new artistic standards in figure skating. At the height of his career, he also mastered the mandatory figures and jumps. It was unusual for him to jump counter-clockwise but do most of his pirouettes clockwise.

Before the 1976 World Cup, Curry was outed as homosexual by the Bild newspaper . It caused a brief scandal, but the press and public ignored his sexual orientation for the next several years. In 1987 Curry was diagnosed with HIV and in 1991 he broke out with AIDS . Before he died, he spoke openly about his illness and sexual orientation. He spent the last few years with his mother. John Curry died on April 15, 1994 of an AIDS-related heart attack. He was 44 years old. In a 2007 biography of actor Alan Bates , the latter claimed that Curry died in his arms.

Results

Competition / year	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976
winter Olympics			10.				1.
World championships		14th	9.	4th	7th	3.	1.
European championships	12.	7th	5.	4th	3.	2.	1.
British Championships		1.		1.	1.	1.	1.

literature

• Bill Jones: Alone: ​​the triumph and tragedy of John Curry , London [u. a.]: Bloomsbury, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4088-5342-9

Web links

• John Curry in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Deaths Tear at Figure-Skating World (English)
2. ^ Donald Spoto: Alan Bates's secret gay affair with ice skater John Curry , Daily Mail . May 19, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2007.