Frank Carroll is an American figure skating coach and former competitive skater. He coached Michelle Kwan for ten years and is currently the primary coach of Evan Lysacek and Beatrisa Liang, among others.
Biography
Carroll grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts. When he was in his early teens, a skating rink opened in his neighborhood and he began skating.[1] Carroll eventually moved to Winchester, Massachusetts and lived with his coach Maribel Vinson Owen and her daughters on weekends.[1] The highlight of Carroll's amateur career was winning the silver medal on the junior level at the 1960 United States Figure Skating Championships behind Douglas Ramsay[2]. Carroll turned professional after that and was skating with the Ice Follies at the time of the Sabena Flight 548 crash.[3] Carroll skated with the Ice Follies until 1964. He was accepted to law school at the University of San Francisco, but chose to pursue acting.[1] He appeared in the background of several beach films, including The Loved One.[1] He began coaching on the side to support himself and eventually decided to coach full-time. Carroll's former students include Linda Fratianne, Christopher Bowman, Michelle Kwan, Tiffany Chin, Mark Cockerell, Timothy Goebel, Karen Kwan, Nicole Bobek, Angela Nikodinov, and Jennifer Kirk. Michelle Kwan fired him in October, 2001.[4] He fired Goebel in November 2004 following the NHK Trophy[5] and split with Chin after having disagreements with her mother. He is one of the few coaches to have coached a World Champion both during the era of compulsory figures (Fratianne) and after it (Kwan). Carroll, along with Ken Congemi, is currently coaching Evan Lysacek, Beatrisa Liang, Danielle Kahle, and Becky Hughes. He is the head coach for the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California. Carroll was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1996. He is the only figure skating coach to be named the Olympic Coach of the Year, which happened in 1997. On March 6, 2007, it was announced that he was elected to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.[6] He was inducted on March 22, 2007 during the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships, between the original dance and the men's free skate.
References
- ^ a b c d Smith, Beverley (1997). Talking Figure Skating: Behind the Scenes in the World's Most Glamorous Sport. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0771081073.
- ^ Nichols, Nikki. Frozen in Time: The Enduring Legacy of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating Team. Emmis Books, 2006. ISBN 1-57860-260-2.
- ^ Milton, Steve (1998). Skate Talk: Figure Skating in the Words of the Stars. Firefly Books. ISBN 1552092097.
- ^ "Kwan says she's going to direct her own career", ESPN, 2001-10-23. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
- ^ DeWall, Lindsay. "FIGURE SKATING: Timothy Goebel and Coach Frank Carroll Part Ways; Goebel to start training with Audrey Weisiger", United States Olympic Committee, 2004-11-08. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
- ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17490953/
