Longtime and beloved U.S. Figure Skating official Elliot Schwartz passed away on Thursday, Sept. 24, after complications from a medical procedure. He was 59.
             
"Today, the global skating community is mourning the tragic loss of Elliot," U.S. Figure Skating President Kevin Rosenstein said. "Elliot was a light in the figure skating world, as a superfan, an official, a dedicated volunteer, our data guru, and as one of the kindest individuals our community has known."

From East Boothbay, Maine, Schwartz began as a figure skater while a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His passion for skating led him into a career on the judges' stand and technical panel.

Elliot became an official in 2006, earning an appointment as a scoring official that November. By April 2011, he had reached the level of national scoring official.

While he was moving up the ranks of a scoring official, he added appointments as a national data operator (2007) and Level 1 scoring system technician (2008).

In 2013, he began judging, becoming a gold singles test judge in 2014 and a national singles/pairs competition judge in 2024.

He added singles technical controller to his resume in 2014 and became an international data and replay operator in 2016, rising to the ISU Championship level in 2018. He served as a data and replay operator at the 2023 and 2026 ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships and the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships. He was also a national synchronized judge, earning his first synchronized judging appointment in 2014 and national appointment in 2019.

"We lost a genuinely great person today," U.S. Figure Skating Chief Executive Officer Matt Farrell said.  "He was a kind soul and brilliantly talented. I have personal memories of meeting him at the gymnastics trials in 2024 and then getting to know and love him more at figure skating. He was a great man and a gift to the sport."

In recent years, he lent his data and analytic expertise in performance innovation to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committees. At the Paris Olympics in 2024, he worked with U.S. teams involved in the acrobatic sports, gymnastics, diving and artistic swimming. 
   
Information about services is pending.