John Nicks, World Champion Skater and Coach to Olympians, Dies at 97

John Nicks, the 1953 world pairs champion who went on to coach generations of Olympic skaters in the United States, died on Nov 3, 2026. He was 97.

U.S. Figure Skating announced his death on Nov 4, 2026. NBC Sports also reported it the same day. Nicks was a six-time British pairs champion and a 1953 World champion as a skater, and he became one of the best known coaches in the sport, known to his skaters as Mr. Nicks.

"The skating community has lost a tremendous ambassador with the passing of John Nicks," said Matt Farrell, the chief executive of U.S. Figure Skating, in the federation statement reported by NBC Sports.

From Brighton to a world title

Nicks was born on April 22, 1929, in Brighton, England, and began skating at age 9. He competed with his younger sister Jennifer. The pair skated at the Olympics in 1948, where they placed eighth, and in 1952, where they placed fourth.

With Jennifer, he won four consecutive World Championships medals from 1950 through 1953. The run ended with gold in 1953, won outdoors in Davos, Switzerland. That title made the brother and sister pair world champions, the peak of his own competitive career.

Five decades of coaching in California

Nicks began his coaching career in the United States at the Iceland Arena in Paramount, California. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961. He coached many U.S. Olympians over five decades.

U.S. Figure Skating said he coached more than 1,200 skaters during his career. His students included Peggy Fleming, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, Tiffany Chin, Christopher Bowman, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, Sasha Cohen and Ashley Wagner. The list covers Olympic champions, world medalists and national champions across several generations of American skating.

His work was recognised inside the sport. Nicks won the PSA Coach of the Year award in 1991 and again in 2012, a gap of 21 years between the two honours. He was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.

His name also stays on the competition calendar. The John Nicks Pairs Challenge, an international pairs competition held in the United States, has been held annually since 2021. The event carries the name of a coach whose own pairs career, with his sister, set the standard he later taught for more than fifty years in California.