In 1976, figure skater John Curry was presented with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award by Lord Mountbatten, having finished ahead of racing driver James Hunt and swimmer David Wilkie. Hunt had won the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship, while Wilkie had won the gold medal in the 200-metres breaststroke at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, setting a world record in the process.
Curry, though, had not only become the first British man to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating, which he did at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, but also won the
British Figure Skating Championships in Richmond, the European Figure Skating Championships in Geneva and the World Figure Skating Championships in Lyon.
In Innsbruck, he carried the British flag and the opening ceremony and, when competition commenced, finished second in the compulsory figures, behind Sergei Volkov of the Soviet Union, and second in the short programme, behind Toller Cranston of Canada, to lead the overall standings ahead of the free skate. In that free skate, at the Olympiahalle in Innsbruck, Curry delivered what was described in commentary as, “One of the finest, most beautiful moments of skating I have ever seen.”
In a flawless, five-minute programme, set to the music of Ludwig Minkus from his score of the ballet ‘Don Quixote’, Curry began with a triple toe loop and also successfully landed a triple salchow and triple loop. Technical proficiency aside, he also received scores of 5.9 for artistic impression from all bar one of nine international judges, the Canadian judge, who awarded him 5.8. All told, Curry earned 105.9 points out of a possible 108 for his free skate to take his overall total to 192.74 points and give him the gold medal ahead of his nearest pursuer, Vladimir Kovalyov of the Soviet Union, who finished with 187.64 points, despite error-strewn short and free programs.
Curry was diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 1987 and with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1991. He spent his final years with his mother, Rita, and died of an AIDS-related heart attack at her home in Binton, Warwickshire on April 15, 1994. He was just 44 years old.