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Carlo Fassi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carlo Fassi
Personal information
Born(1929-12-20)20 December 1929
Milan, Italy
Died20 March 1997(1997-03-20) (aged 67)
Lausanne, Switzerland
Figure skating career
Country Italy
Retired1954
Medal record
Representing  Italy
Figure skating: Men's singles
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place1953 DavosMen's singles
European Championships
Gold medal – first place1954 BolzanoMen's singles
Gold medal – first place1953 DortmundMen's singles
Silver medal – second place1952 ViennaMen's singles
Bronze medal – third place1951 ZürichMen's singles
Bronze medal – third place1950 OsloMen's singles

Carlo Fassi (20 December 1929 – 20 March 1997[1][2]) was an Italian figure skater and international coach whose students included several World and Olympic champions. His students included Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, John Curry, Robin Cousins, Jill Trenary, and Nicole Bobek. As a single skater, he was the 1953 World bronze medalist, a two-time European champion (1953, 1954), and a ten-time Italian national champion (1945–54). In 1961, he and his wife Christa Fassi, who coached with him for 37 years, emigrated to the U.S. after the Sabena Flight 548 crash; he became a U.S. citizen. He died of a heart attack during the 1997 World Championships.

Personal life

[edit]

Fassi was born in Milan on December 20, 1929.[1][2] He was the son of a builder.[3] He spoke five languages, including English, Italian, German, and French, sometimes at the same time.[4][5][6] Fassi married German figure skater Christa von Kuczkowski in 1960.[4][2] They had three children: Ricardo, Lorenzo, and Monica.[6]

Fassi was called "a dour-looking man with a warm sense of humor" who "pursued skating with a passion".[3] Philip Hersh, a figure skating reporter with the Chicago Tribune, considered Fassi a friend, "more than just someone to whom I turned for information and explanations about his complicated sport".[4] Figure skating reporter Dennis Bird said that he could rely on Fassi for giving him an honest opinion about his students, both the positive and negative.[2]

Fassi was a passionate soccer fan; his favorite team was AC Milan.[4] He also had a passion for building models of WWII battleships.[4][2] After emigrating to the U.S. in 1961, he became a U.S. citizen.[6]

Competitive career

[edit]

As a pairs skater, with Grazia Barcellona, Fassi came in 13th place at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland and came in ninth place at the 1949 European Championships.[7] He won the Italian National Championships with Barcellona 1942-1951.[2] Dennis Bird wrote "rather condescendingly" about Fassi after seeing him compete for the first time at the 1949 World Championships in 1949, "Carlo Fassi of Italy was inclined to toe-poke (a common fault in compulsory figure skating) but is generally conceded to have improved since last year's Olympics".[2] He came in eighth place.[7] He came in sixth place at the 1951 and 1952 Worlds Championships and won a bronze medal at 1953 Worlds.[3][6][7]

Fassi came in fourth place at the1949 European Championships,[1][7] won bronze medals at Europeans in 1950 and 1951, a silver medal at Europeans in 1952,[7] and gold medals at Europeans in 1953 and 1954.[1][8][7] He competed at two Olympics, coming in 15th place in 1948 and in sixth place in 1952,[2][7] and was the Italian national men's champion between 1943 and 1954.[2]

Coaching career

[edit]

Declining to join the Ice Capades, Fassi took up coaching after the end of his competitive career.[3] Hersh called him "one of the most renowned singles coaches in figure skating history".[8] According to figure skating historian James R. Hines, Fassi's importance was not "found in his competitve record but rather in his role as one of the most respected and successful coaches" in figure skating at the time.[9] From 1956 to 1961, he coached at the Olympic Stadium in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and for four years served as the trainer for the Italian World team.[10][2] One of his first students was Kuczkowski, who worked with him as a teacher and coach.[11][2]

Following the 1961 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. figure skating team and many of the top American coaches, Fassi and Kuczkowski moved to the United States, where they established themselves as a successful coaching team. Fassi became a U.S. citizen.[3][10] They "were a splendid partnership"[2] and worked together for 37 years.[4] Dennis Bird stated, "Each had qualities that complemented the other, to the benefit of their pupils".[2] In 1961, the Fassis were based first at the Broadmoor Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was appointed chief instructor,[10] then at the Colorado Ice Arena in suburban Denver, before returning to the Broadmoor in the early 1980s. Fassi later spent three years in Italy in the early 1990s to bolster the Italian team, but returned to the U.S. in 1993 to coach at the Ice Castle rink in Lake Arrowhead, California.[3][4] In 1980, he wrote the book, Figure Skating with Carlo Fassi.[1]

Skaters from all over the world came to train with the Fassis. Their students included Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, John Curry, Robin Cousins, and Jill Trenary.[12][1][4] Figure skating writer and journalist Christine Brennan said that becoming Fossi's student was "like going to finishing school".[5] Fleming, who Fassi later called his most talented student and who was his first major skating student,[12] began working with Fassi "as an unpolished Californian teenager" in 1965 in Colorado Springs.[13] She said that she went to him to improve her compulsory figures, "but the lessons he taught me changed my life".[3] Cousins said that he would not have won the Olympic gold medal in 1980 without Fassi's coaching.[8][6] Curry said about him, "Mr Fassi is the best trainer in the world".[2] He coached Nicole Bobek, who was Fassi's student at the time of his death and saw him as a father figure, working with him twice.[8] The first time was in 1990, when she was a junior skater, and again in 1996, after working with five other coaches, to prepare for the 1997 season and the 1998 Olympics.[14] According to Brennan, Fassi instilled confidence in Bobek and loved and understood her.[15] Fassi was estranged from Hamill for 20 years before his death in 1997 due to a contract dispute.[4][6] Brennan called Fassi "an accomplished Italian skater and coach" and one of fellow coach Frank Carroll's "rivals".[16]

Fassi's students:

Legacy and death

[edit]

Fassi opposed the elimination of compulsory figures in 1990, worrying that it would "turn women’s skating into gymnastics on ice".[4] He was also concerned that an emphasis on jumps would shorten careers due to more injuries.[4] He also opposed raising the age limit for senior-level skaters, arguing that junior skaters would eventually be better than older, senior skaters. His solution was to limit the number of bigger jumps women executed during a free skating program.[18]

Hersh called Fassi both legendary and controversial, and that his ability to speak several languages made him "a force in the behind-the-scenes machinations common in figure skating".[4] Hersh also said that Fassi "was adept at ensuring that his skaters received the marks they deserved from judges, especially in the years when compulsory figures counted for more than half a skater’s score".[8] Brennan said that his skating expertise and his language skills helped him excel in making backroom deals with judges, although he denied that any of his deals were shady.[5] Brennan also suggested that the removal of compulsory figures deprived him and other coaches "the chance to maneuver behind the scenes".[5]

According to Hersh, Fassi "anger[ed] many in the U.S. figure skating estabilshment",[4] especially after allegations that Fassi had made a deal with communist block judges during the 1980 Olympics that favored East German female skater Anett Poetzch over Linda Fratianne of the U.S., who was coached by Frank Carroll. The alleged deal included awarding the gold medal to British male skater Robin Cousins, who was coached by Fassi, over Jan Hoffman of East Germany, who came in second place. Fratianne, who was devastated by her loss for decades, came in second place. There was never any evidence of deal-making, but Carroll was certain that it had happened, although Fassi denied it and the two barely spoke for many years, until they reconciled after Fassi came to coach at Lake Arrowhead.[4][19][20]

Fassi died of a heart attack at the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, which he was attending as the coach of Nicole Bobek and Cornel Gheorghe.[12][4][21] He had diabetes but no history of heart problems.[6] He had complained of indigestion and dizziness and died in a hospital in Lausanne, with his wife and son at his side. Bobek, who continued to compete at Worlds, told reporters that one of Fassi's last requests was that Crista Fassi continue to coach her for the rest of the competition.[3][8] Cousins called Fassi's death at Worlds "uncanny".[4] The news about Fassi's death "traveled like wildfire" at the Olympics; Brennan reported, "Coaches and judges wept and embraced in the same open-air gathering place that Fassi had walked through that morning on his way to the skaters' lounge".[22] A moment of silence was observed in his honor before the men's free skate at Worlds.[12]

Fassi was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1997,[1] the Coaches Hall of Fame by the Professional Skaters Association in 2002,[23] and the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2008.[24]

Results

[edit]

Men's singles

[edit]
International[7]
Event 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954
Winter Olympics15th6th
World Champ.8th6th6th3rd
European Champ.4th3rd3rd2nd1st1st
National
Italian Champ.1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st

Pairs with Barcellona

[edit]
International[7]
Event 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954
Winter Olympics13th
European Champ.9th
National[2]
Italian Champ.1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hines 2011, p. 86.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Bird, Dennis (26 March 1997). "Obituary: Carlo Fassi". The Independent. Archived from the original on 30 November 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Fassi, Coach to Stars, Dies after Heart Attack". Baltimore Sun. 21 March 1997. Archived from the original on 14 July 2026. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Hersh, Philip (30 March 1997). "Fond Goodbye to Master Coach of Figure Skating". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 14 July 2026. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Brennan 1998, p. 131.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Longman, Jere (21 March 1997). "Carlo Fassi, Skating Coach, is Dead at 67". The New York Times. p. B9. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 27 April 2025. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Carlo Fassi". International Olympic Committee. n.d. Archived from the original on 25 February 2025. Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hersh, Philip (21 March 1997). "Renowned Skating Coach Fassi, 67, Dies". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 15 July 2026. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
  9. ↑ Hines 2011, p. 98.
  10. 1 2 3 Pro News, Skating magazine, May 1961
  11. ↑ "Carlo Fassi". Munzinger.de (in German). March 1984. Archived from the original on 14 July 2026. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 "Coach of Legends Dies: Heart Attack Fells Carlo Fassi, Mentor to Fleming and Hamill". Philadelphia Enquirer. Daily News Wire Services. 21 March 1997. Archived from the original on 16 June 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  13. ↑ Brennan 1998, p. 137.
  14. ↑ Brennan 1998, p. 129.
  15. ↑ Brennan 1998, p. 130.
  16. ↑ Brennan 1998, p. 89.
  17. ↑ Brennan 1998, p. 97.
  18. ↑ Brennan 1998, p. 134.
  19. ↑ Brennan 1998, pp. 89–90.
  20. ↑ Longman, Jere (18 February 1998). "Kwan's Coach Hoping to Gild a Career Filled with Heartbreak". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  21. ↑ Longman, Jere (21 March 1997). "Carlo Fassi, Skating Coach, Is Dead at 67". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 27 April 2025. Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  22. ↑ Brennan 1998, pp. 136–137.
  23. ↑ "PSA Coaches Hall of Fame". Professional Skaters Association. n.d. Archived from the original on 8 March 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
  24. ↑ "Carlo Fassi". United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. n.d. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2026.

Works cited

[edit]
  • Brennan, Christine (1998). Edge of Glory: The Inside Story of the Quest for Figure Skating's Olympic Gold Medals. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-84128-2.
  • Hines, James R. (2011). Historical Dictionary of Figure Skating. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6859-5.
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