ITNY Lifetime Achievement Award
Frank
Carroll By Terri Milner Tarquini
F
rank Carroll had just accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ice Theatre of New York two nights before when he received news that shocked him: Over the course of his storied career, he has built a resume that qualifies him as the most successful figure skating coach in United States history. “Is that true?” said Carroll, flabbergasted. “Really?” Long pause. “I had no idea.” In a career spanning 60 years, Carroll has coached the following: one Olympic champion, six Olympic medalists, 11 Olympians from five countries at 10 Olympics, three world champions, four junior world champions and six U.S. national champions. Beginning with Linda Fratianne, who won the Olympic silver medal in 1976, Carroll coached skaters at 10 of the next 12 Winter Games, only missing 1984 and 1994. He has adeptly navigated the eras of compulsory figures, the 6.0 judging system, and the IJS judging system. In 1991, Fratianne’s mother, a skating judge, suggested Carroll bring in 11-year-old Michelle Kwan for a try-out. “When I looked at Michelle, I saw a diamond in the rough,” Carroll remembered. “I could see under the layers what could be there and the grooming it would take, the interpretation of music, the grace, the line, the strength, the spring and the eagerness and I knew right away— that’s a world champion.” For 10 years, he coached Kwan,
PHOTO BY H. AONO
The award recipients—John and Amy Hughes and Frank Carrol—with Tenley Albright and ITNY Founder Moira North
the most accomplished U.S. ladies figure skater in the last half-century, through most of her five world titles, nine national titles, and Olympic silver and bronze medals. But it was with a six-foot-twoinch Illinois native who moved to California fresh out of high school to work with him that Carroll accomplished the biggest accolade of his coaching career: Olympic gold. “Evan Lysacek was a disciplined young man with an impressive competitive record, but was not considered a threat to the Russian skaters,” said the video presentation played at the ITNY gala in October. “Under Frank’s coaching, Evan transformed from a solid skater into a risk-taker, charged by the confidence instilled by his coach.” In the six years Lysacek trained with Carroll before becoming Olympic champion, he also won two U.S. Championships and a World Championship. Among many others, Carroll coached Christopher Bowman to a national title and two world medals; Timothy Goebel to an Olympic bronze by being the first skater to land a quadruple salchow in competition, as well as the first to land three quads in one program; Denis Ten to an Olympic bronze and two world championships; and Gracie Gold
to two national champions and an Olympic team medal. But the path of life is rarely straight, and it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Carroll would be a coach at all. At his local movie theater in Worcester, Massachusetts, Carroll had seen a news clip of Dick Button winning the Olympics and he was drawn to the jumps, spins, athleticism, and power of figure skating. After initially becoming a student of Cecilia Colledge, an Olympic silver medalist and world champion, he soon found his coach and life mentor in the legendary Maribel VinsonOwen, training on weekends while staying at her home. “I was friends with Maribel’s daughters, but I had no idea who she was; I didn’t know the history,” Carroll said. “Her daughters told me everything she had done and then I realized.” As a singles skater, Vinson-Owen was an Olympic bronze medalist, two-time world medalist and ninetime national champion, a distinction she shares with only one other skater: Michelle Kwan. As a pairs skater, she was a six-time national champion with two different partners. And she did it all while working as the first female sports reporter at the New York Times.
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