John Nicks, six-time British pairs champion, 1953 World champion and renowned coach, passed away on Nov. 3, 2026. He was 97.

Born April 22, 1929, in Brighton, England, Nicks began skating at age 9. His father, who owned a retail sports business, wanted to sell skating equipment. He enrolled Nicks and his sister, Jennifer, in lessons to learn more about the sport.

The siblings joined forces to become a pairs team and skated to six British national titles together. They made their Olympic debut at the 1948 Olympic Winter Games, where they finished eighth. At their second Olympic appearance in 1952, the Nicks siblings finished fourth. They also won four World medals, including gold at the 1953 World Championships. They retired from competitive skating following their World title.

Upon his retirement, Nicks moved to South Africa to perform in professional ice shows. It was when he broke his foot during a show and was forced off the ice for six months that he expressed an interest in coaching.

Nicks would move to North America to fill in the coaching gap created when Sabena Flight 548 went down near Brussels, Belgium, killing the entire the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating World Team.

He began his U.S. coaching career at the Iceland Arena in Paramount, California, where Frank Zamboni educated him on the U.S. ice rink business.

Nicks coached more than 1,200 skaters during his career, including Paul Wylie, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, Tiffany Chin, Christopher Bowman, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, Sasha Cohen, Jojo Starbuck and Ken Shelley, and Ashley Wagner.

His renowned teaching style and success earned him the PSA Coach of the Year award in 1991 and 2012. He was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1993 and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.

Mr. Nicks, as he was respectfully addressed by everyone, focused a lot of his coaching efforts on mental conditioning. In a SKATING magazine article from November 1977, he said, "Whatever approach you make in those vital weeks before competition, it all must be geared toward that end of giving the skater confidence the minute he steps out on the ice.

"For a competitor to be self-confident in what he's going to be doing, nothing can substitute for a hard year's training and complete running through of his various programs."

In addition to his renowned coaching career, Nicks was also the national skating director of the Ice Capades chalets, a nationwide organization of rinks operated by the ice show company of the same name. For the company, he helped promote skating at their facilities and directed some choreography for shows.

In recent years, an ISU Challenger Series event was created titled the John Nicks Pairs Challenge, which was cohosted in mid-September by the SC of New York and the SC of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Off the ice, Nicks enjoyed boating and fishing and was often seen refurbishing his boats to take out on the water. He married U.S. ice dancer Yvonne Littlefield, who won the 1962 U.S. Championships with partner Peter Betts.

More about Mr. Nicks' remarkable life and career will be featured online and in SKATING magazine.