On a cold winter’s evening in February 1976, 20 million
Britons turned on their TVs to watch the Winter Olympics ice skating.
It didn’t matter that most of them knew nothing about it.
The whole country was in thrall to a dazzling new talent who had burst upon the
scene and turned the sport entirely on its head.
That phenomenon was an athlete named John Curry who had
already secured the European title and would that night add Olympic gold to his
tally. Impossibly handsome, he appeared to those who watched him to combine
athleticism and art, masculinity and beauty. He was mesmerising.
An innovator and hugely creative
talent.
Curry had changed ice skating from a marginal sport to something
sensual and deeply moving.
