Carlo Fassi - Career

Career

Fassi was born in Milan.

As a competitor, he won the European Championships in 1953 and 1954, and also won the bronze medal at the World Championships in 1953. He was the Italian men's champion for 10 years.

Fassi took up coaching after the end of his competitive career. From 1956 to 1961, he coached at the Olympic Stadium in Cortina, Italy, and for four years served as the trainer for the Italian World Team. One of his first students was a young German skater, Christa von Kuczkowski, who became his wife and mother to his three children: Riccardo, Monika, and Lorenzo.

Following the 1961 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. Figure Skating team and many of the top American coaches, Fassi moved with his family to the United States, where he soon became established as a top international coach. He was based first at the famous Broadmoor Arena in Colorado Springs, then for a time in Denver, Colorado before returning to the Broadmoor in the early 1980s, and finally, following a brief return to Italy, at the Ice Castle rink in Lake Arrowhead, California.

His students included World and Olympic Champions Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, John Curry, Robin Cousins, and Jill Trenary. He also coached Scott Hamilton and Paul Wylie in the early stages of their careers. Skaters from all over the world came to train with Fassi, giving his training camp a strongly cosmopolitan and international atmosphere.

Besides being an excellent technical coach, Fassi had the reputation of being a master of political dealings in the figure skating world, with the ability to bring his students to the attention of the judges. He was such an icon in the sport that when the comic character Snoopy adopted an alter ego as a figure skating coach (appearing, for example, in the 1980 TV special She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown), it was clearly modelled upon Fassi.

Fassi died of a heart attack at the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships in Lausanne, which he was attending as the coach of US skater Nicole Bobek.

He was inducted into the Coaches Hall of Fame by the Professional Skaters Association in 2002.