COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Frank Carroll, who coached
Michelle Kwan and Linda Fratianne and now works with U.S. men's
champion Evan Lysacek, has been elected to the World Figure Skating
Hall of Fame.
Carroll's skaters have won Olympic medals as well as numerous
world and U.S. titles. He is one of only three coaches to have both
the men's and women's U.S. champion in the same year: Kwan and
Timothy Goebel in 2001.
Carroll was a successful junior skater under Maribel Vinson
Owen, and still talks of her influence. When Lysacek won his first
title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January, Carroll
stood by the boards, clutching a medal Owen had given him.
He began coaching in 1964, and established himself as one of the
sport's best by guiding Fratianne to the Olympic silver medal in
1980, gold medals at the 1977 and '79 world championships, and four
straight U.S. titles (1977-80).
But it was his decade with Kwan that made him a star.
The two began working together in 1992, when Kwan was an
up-and-coming junior. She once infuriated him by taking her
senior-level test when he was out of town -- he'd told her he didn't
think she was ready -- but their partnership was a model of
stability in a sport where skaters change coaches as often as their
skate blades.
At news conferences, they would often start talking at the same
time, saying the same thing. They even showed up in matching U.S.
team outfits one day at the Nagano Olympics.
Under Carroll, Kwan won four of her five world titles, five of
her nine U.S. championships and the 1998 Olympic silver medal. The
two split less than four months before the Salt Lake City Games,
where Kwan won the bronze medal.
While Carroll's students are always technically solid, his gift
is making them into versatile skaters. Kwan, Fratianne and
Christopher Bowman could put on performances that moved audiences
to tears with their beauty and grace. Olympic bronze medalist
Goebel was one of the best jumpers in the world, but it was Carroll
who showed him how to put on a show.
Carroll will be inducted into the hall at the world
championships later this month in Tokyo.