Figure skating coach John Nicks, who shaped generations of US champions, dies at 97

Renowned figure skating coach John Nicks, who won a world pairs championship for Britain with his sister Jennifer Nicks and went on to tutor the likes of Olympic champions Peggy Fleming and Kristi Yamaguchi, died Monday. He was 97.

U.S. Figure Skating, which worked closely with Nicks over the course of his career, confirmed his death in a statement Tuesday.

“The skating community has lost a tremendous ambassador,” U.S. Figure Skating chief executive Matt Farrell said. “John helped shape generations of American figure skaters and his influence extended well beyond the champions he coached.”

Nicks was born on April 22, 1929, in Brighton, England, and began skating at the age of 9 in part because his father wanted to sell skating equipment at his retail store. Nicks soon paired up with his younger sister, who died of a heart attack in 1980, and the two of went on to win six British pairs titles, appear in two Winter Olympics and win four world championship medals.

It was as a coach that Nicks truly excelled, though.

He had already relocated to Canada when Sabena Flight 548 crashed near Brussels, Belgium, killing the U.S. team on its way to the 1961 world championships. After the crash, Nicks was offered several coaching positions in the U.S., ultimately accepting a job at the Iceland Arena in Paramount, California, owned by Frank Zamboni — the inventor of the ice resurfacer that carries his name.

Nicks coached more than 1,200 skaters, including world pairs champions Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner; world pairs medalists Jenni Meno and Todd Sand; Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen; and Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Wagner.

“Mr. Nicks, you were a champion maker,” Wagner wrote Wednesday . “I will forever be grateful for my time with you, the lessons learned and the athlete that you transformed me into. You made me understand that I had to skate for the person sitting in the last row, at the top of the arena. You made me a performer, a skater who learned to care so much more about the total package.”

Nicks was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1993 and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.

Along with coaching, Nicks served as the national director of the Ice Capades chalets, a nationwide organization of rinks operated by the ice show company of the same name. And in recent years, a lower-level International Skating Union event co-hosted by the Skating Club of New York and the Skating Club of Boston was titled the John Nicks Pairs Challenge in his honor.

Nicks had a son, Christopher, and daughter, Carolyn, with his first wife, Denise. He later married U.S. ice dancer Yvonne Littlefield, who won the 1962 national championship with her former husband, Peter Betts.

“(Nicks) earned the deep respect of the skating community through a lifetime of dedication to his athletes and to the sport,” Farrell said. "We are grateful for all he gave to U.S. Figure Skating, and our thoughts are with his wife, Yvonne, his son, Christopher, and the many skaters, colleagues and friends mourning his loss.”

See AP’s full sports coverage here