Frank Carroll learned to skate on a pond as a youngster growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, but fell in love with figure skating after seeing newsreels of famous skaters at the cinema.
“To me, figure skating is a divine sport,” he told me years later, having become one of the most beloved and decorated trainers in skating history. “The gods have created this sport.” It’s seamless, with beautiful, flowing garments created by a costume designer, musical interpretation, emotion, athleticism, and incredible physical strength. It causes people to cry, to cheer, and to express their feelings.”
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Journalists frequently accompanied Carroll, known as a superb teacher and tactician with a quick wit and a delightful sense of humor, during the 1980s and 1990s skating boom. As Kwan progressed through the ranks of the sport, her appearances at press conferences with Carroll by her side, listening intently, interjecting here and then, and occasionally raising a sardonic eyebrow, became legendary.
Carroll, who coached Michelle Kwan, Evan Lysacek, Timothy Goebel, and Linda Fratianne, among other Olympic, world, and national champions and medalists, died on Sunday in Palm Springs, California, from cancer. He was 85.
Carroll stated that he was attempting to think of methods to improve his coaching for Kwan during the important 1998 Winter Olympics season.
“What did you come up with?” a reporter inquired.
“A lobotomy,” Carroll said, chuckling.
“For her, or for you?”
“Both of us,” he answered. “We’re going in for a group rate.”
He stood by the boards as he sent Kwan onto the ice at a tournament, holding up and shaking the book he was reading that week to ensure she noticed it.
It was called “Undaunted Courage.”.
“For over 10 years, Frank has been by my side, coaching and mentoring me to be the best skater and person that I can be,” Kwan, now the ambassador to Belize, said in a text message Sunday afternoon. “He showered me with a wealth of knowledge and history about the sport he so adored.” Off the ice, he evolved into much more than a coach over the years. I know he’s positively impacted the lives of hundreds of skaters, and I’m grateful to be one of them. I wouldn’t be here without his direction. I love and miss Frank a lot.”
Kwan concluded her illustrious career with nine national titles, five world championships, and two Olympic medals, establishing herself as an elegant and dominant force during the sport’s most competitive era.
Carroll trained under renowned coach Maribel Vinson Owen at numerous rinks in Boston during the 1950s. After graduating from Holy Cross with a degree in education, he joined the touring play Ice Follies in 1960 for $250 per week. Owen quickly told him to stop skateboarding. She urged him to attend law school.
However, a plane crash on their way to the World Championships in 1961 killed Owen and the entire United States figure skating team, including her two daughters. The crash in Brussels killed 34 skaters, coaches, judges, officials, and family members.
Carroll never attended law school. After four and a half years in the ice show, he moved to Los Angeles and began acting in “terrible B movies,” while also teaching skating in the afternoon.
His part-time distraction quickly became his life’s vocation, carrying him throughout the world for decades to stand beside his skaters on the ice and sit with them while they waited for their scores in “Kiss and Cry.” Carroll retired in 2018.
In addition to Kwan, Lysacek, Goebel, and Fratianne, Carroll coached Tiffany Chin, Christopher Bowman, Nicole Bobek, and Gracie Gold. Both the United States and the World Figure Skating Halls of Fame inducted him.
Lori Nichol, Carroll’s collaboration partner, was Kwan’s choreographer for the majority of her time working with him.
“Frank was a rare and glorious combination of high intelligence, discipline, courage, and kindness,” Nichol wrote in a message. “A gentleman, simultaneously hilarious and refined, whose voice I hear in my head every day, both on and off the ice.”
