We enjoy a good game of making up names for the various, innovative terms, positions & moves: the Double Nipple of the Party Boy, the Death Spiral Camel Toe, the Triple Axle Rose, the Booty Squat, the Fruit Loop-Lose Your Cherry Flip, Kiss the Nun, & the Hair Bending Junior Swish Swizzle. When I ice skate, I look like a newborn fawn standing up for the very 1st time.
We were admirers of good looking John Curry, the elegant British 1976 Olympic champion who infused figure skating with the possibilities of dance. As an athlete, Curry was a visionary,defining his sport with balletic sophistication. He became one of the few athletes to speak openly of being Gay & HIV Positive.
Dick Button, the men's Olympic champion in 1948 & 1952: " He was the finest & most intelligent all-around skater I've ever seen. He skated with a combination of superior athleticism, solid technique, classical line & musical sensitivity. He was choreographically inventive."
He was born in 1949, in Birmingham, England. Curry wanted to become a ballet dancer, but was forbidden by his father. He turned to the expressiveness of skating, which reminded him of dance.
By 1970, he had become the British national champion. Curry found the training facilities inadequate in England, & in 1973 he moved to Colorado to train with Carlo Fassi, who had coached the 1968 Olympic champion Peggy Fleming.
At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, Curry faced tough competition from Vladimir Kovalev of the USSR, Toller Cranston of Canada, & skepticism from Eastern Bloc judges who preferred a more athletic rather than artistic style.
In the short program, Curry removed a planned spread-eagle flourish from his approach to a double axel jump. The East European judges apparently appreciated that he did not embellish on what was required. In the long program, Curry sufficiently balanced his refined style with vaulting jumps to receive higher marks than Kovalev, the silver medalist, from 8 of the 9 judges.
Peggy Fleming: "I think he brought the purest form of ballet to the ice. He was a real purist, totally devoted to the art of skating. He also had the technique & athleticism to make that art look effortless. It was a wonderful blend of art & sport."
No longer bound by amateur rules, the professional Curry continued to explore alternate forms of skating, bringing his acclaimed IceDancing show to Broadway in 1977-78 & later touring with his own John Curry Skating Company. He did not go for the glitzy ice shows, Curry: "I never could see the point of spending 12 years training to go dress up in a Bugs Bunny suit. I was brought up on the Royal Ballet, and I hope it shows in my work."
In 1987, Mr. Curry contracted HIV. He later stated that he felt "ashamed" at having contracted an STD. He disclosed his homosexuality: "I just accept being gay as the way I am. I don't think of it as being bad or wrong or to do with any form of illness. I never pretended not to be gay, ever. I think the more open people are, the easier it gets for everybody else because it demystifies it. I don't want others to be frightened like I was"
Actor Alan Bates enjoyed an intense, 2 year romance with Curry while still married to actress- Victoria Ward. When he later discovered that Curry was suffering the ravages of AIDS, he took care of his former lover during his last days. Curry eventually died in his arms.
Alan Bates
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