September 9, 1949– On a winter evening in 1976, millions of people watched John Curry skate to Olympic glory. Overnight he became one of the most famous men on our pretty planet & he changed ice skating from negligible sport to high art.
The Husband & I have been fans of figure skating on TV for decades. We have our favorites, & we also get chuckles watching skating’s insular world, with all of its rules, regulations, costumes, & the denial that there is anything intrinsically gay about figure skating.
We enjoy a good game of inventing names for the various positions & moves: The Double Nipple Of The Party Boy, The Death Spiral Camel Toe, The Triple Axle Rose, The Fruit Loop-Lose Your Cherry Flip, Kiss The Nun, & the Hair Bending Junior Swish Swizzle. Whenever I have put on a pair of skates & hit the ice, I look like a newborn fawn standing up for the very first time.
We were admirers of good-looking, charismatic John Curry, an elegant British Olympic Champion who infused figure skating with the possibilities of dance. As an athlete, Curry was visionary, defining his sport with balletic sophistication. He became one of the first athletes to speak openly of being Gay & HIV Positive.
Dick Button, the Men’s Olympic Champion in 1948 & 1952:
“Curry 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.”
Curry was born in 1949, in Birmingham, England. He wanted to become a ballet dancer, but was forbidden by his abusive, alcoholic father. He turned to the expressiveness of skating, which came close to being 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 Peggy Fleming, 1968 Olympic champion.
At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Curry faced tough competition from Vladimir Kovalev of the USSR, Canadian Toller Cranston , & skepticism from the Eastern Bloc judges who preferred athleticism over artistry.
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 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.”
Just hours after receiving his 1976 Olympic gold medal, Curry inadvertently disclosed his gayness to a reporter, thinking he was speaking off the record:
“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”
After the Olympic Games, no longer bound by amateur rules, the professional Curry continued to explore different forms of skating, bringing his acclaimed Ice Dancing show to Broadway in 1977-78 & later touring with his own John Curry Skating Company. He did not go for glitzy Ice Capades 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, & I hope it shows in my work.”
Curry directed a 1980 West End revival of the Lerner & Loewe musical chestnut Brigadoon & found work as an actor, appearing in the Roundabout Theatre’s 1989 revival of Privates On Parade, Peter Nichols‘ 1977 farce about a fictional, mostly gay, WW2 military entertainment group.
Alan Bates had seen Curry on stage & became a big fan. A married father of teenage twin boys, the actor was at the height of his own fame. He was famous for that notorious hot scene in Ken Russell‘s film Women In Love (1969) where wrestles naked with Oliver Reed. Secretly, Bates had enjoyed many liaisons with other men for decades. Curry was just one. But, for almost 20 years they shared an intense & intriguing romance.
In 1987, Curry was diagnosed with HIV. He later stated that he felt “ashamed” for having contracted an STD. His first lover, skating coach Heinz Wirz claims Curry sought extreme, sometimes violent sexual experiences, but his affair with Bates seems to have been tender & genuine.
During a 1993 vacation, Curry confided in Bates that he never wanted to have a long life, to grow old. What mattered to him was a life lived well in the present & to have mattered. He told Bates that he was ashamed of being broke & was afraid that he had accomplished little during his life.
On a spring day in 1994, Curry left this world while in the arms of Bates. He was 44 years old. Curry’s athleticism & aesthetic grace had thrilled audiences. He transformed skating into a dazzling art.
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