About Our Professionals
COACHES
Maribel Vinson Owen
United States
Elected 1976
Maribel Vinson was one of the top female competitive skaters for more than a decade and a leading instructor. She competed in her first United States Championship in 1924, winning the Junior Ladies’ title. In 1928, she won the first of nine United States Ladies’ Championships, six of them consecutive from 1928-1933. The winter of 1933 she trained in Europe and did not defend her title. Returning to the US in 1935 she regained the championship, which she held through 1937.
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Also an excellent pair skater, she won the United States Junior Pair Championship in 1927 with Thorton Coolidge, then the 1928 and 1929 Senior pair title. After Coolidge retired, she skated pairs with George E. B. Hill; together they won the Pair Championship in 1933 and from 1935 to 1937.
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Maribel was a member of the 1928 Olympic team, placing 4th. That same year she was second to Sonja Henie at the World Championships. In 1930, she won the bronze medal at Worlds. Two years later, at the 1932 Olympic Winter Games, she won the bronze medal. During her stay in Europe in 1933 she entered and placed third in the European Championships, which were then open to non-Europeans. In addition, Maribel won the North American Pair Championship with Hill in 1935 and the Ladies Championship in 1937. She again represented the United States at the 1936 Olympics, placing 5th.
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Maribel Vinson turned professional in 1937 and formed a touring ice show called "Gay Blades," starring her future husband Guy Owen. She soon turned her career to coaching and first went to Minnesota, then Berkeley, California, and in 1954 permanently to Boston. Both of her daughters were skaters. Laurence was North American and United States Ladies Champion in 1961. While Maribel Junior and Dudley Richards won the United States Pair Championship and were second in the North American Pair Championship. Tragically, Maribel and both daughters were members of the 1961 World Team killed in an airplane accident at Brussels, Belgium.
Howard Nicholson
Elected 1976
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Howard Nicholson is best remembered for his great coaching career. Among his pupils were Sonja Henie (1931), Carlo Fassi, Mary Rose Thacker, Sonya Klopfer, Toller Cranston, and Priscilla Hill, who became the youngest USFSA Gold Medalist at the age of 9.
He began as a speed skater and hockey player, but around 1910 he began figure skating and started his professional career as a show skater, appearing at the Hippodrome in New York City, and later at the College Inn (Chicago). Howard won the Open Professional Championship of Great Britain in 1931, 32, and 33. Regarded as a master of compulsory school figures, he recorded his theories in the book, ‘Nicholson on Figure Skating’, which laid the judging standards on how each should be performed.
Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, he first taught in Europe, passing the ISU First Class (Gold) Test in 1926. He returned to the United States after World War II, and continued teaching in New York CIty, Detroit, and finally Lake Placid.
Eugene Turner
Elected 1983
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Eugene Turner first entered the competition in 1934. By 1936 he had become the first Pacific Coast Champion. A title he won four times. In 1938 he won the National Junior Men’s title. The following year he was third in the Senior Men’s event. Eugene was the National Champion in 1940 and 1941.
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Because of World War II, Eugene’s international competitive career was limited to the biennial North American Championships with Canada. The World Championships and the Olympic Winter Games were canceled after 1939.
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Eugene turned professional in 1941 to coach, then joined Sonja Henie’s Hollywood Ice Revue. In 1943 he joined the Army Air Corps, following the war he skated in several films with Sonja Henie and resumed coaching. His many students have included Richard Dwyer, Tim Brown, Dudley Richards, Tenley Albright, and Karol and Peter Kennedy.
John Nicks
United States
Elected 1993
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John Nicks was seven times British Pair Champion from 1947 to 1953 with his sister Jennifer. They were also European and World Champion in 1953. He is best known as one of the prominent pair and singles coaches. He has trained such champions as Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, JoJo Starbuck and Kenneth Shelley, Peggy Fleming, and Christopher Bowman, among others
Mabel Fairbanks
Elected 1997
Mabel Fairbanks opened the barriers for minority figure skaters in the early 1930s. A Sonja Henie motion picture and the purchase of a pair of skates for one dollar triggered what would become one of the most amazing success stories in American skating history.
Mabel, who grew up in Harlem, was given free lessons from many well-known coaches including Howard Nicholson and Maribel Vinson Owen. Facing discrimination at every stage of her career, she persevered with determination and talent. She later toured with many professional shows before becoming an instructor. Among her former students are Richard Ewell, Atoi Wilson, Randy Gardner, and Scott Hamilton.
Carlo Fassi
Elected 1997
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As a competitor, Carlo Fassi achieved success representing his native Italy in both men's and pair events. The 1953 and 1954 European men's champion and the 1953 World bronze medalist, Fassi also represented Italy at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Winter Games.
Fassi, along with his coaching partner and wife, Christa, coached four athletes to Olympic titles - Robin Cousins (1980), John Curry (1976), Peggy Fleming (1968), and Dorothy Hamill (1976). Carlo taught for many years in Denver, Colorado, and at the Broadmoor World Arena. Fassi's influence extended far beyond coaching, as he was Chair of the ISU Coaching Commission and served on the USFSA's Coaches and Skating Standards committees.
Evy and Mary Scotvold
Elected 1998
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Evy and Mary Scotvold are former national competitors. Mary was the 1959 Novice champion. They also were principal performers for Ice Follies for many years. The duo is currently a respected National, World, and Olympic-level coaching team. They coached Paul Wylie to the 1992 Olympic silver medal and Nancy Kerrigan to an Olympic bronze medal in 1992 and the Olympic silver medal in 1994.
Don Laws
Elected 2001
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Don Laws was inducted both as a competitor and coach. As a competitor, Laws and partner Mary Firth were the 1950 U.S. junior dance champions. After retiring from competition, he coached numerous Olympic and World medalists, including Peter Oppegard and Jill Watson, Tiffany Chin, and 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton. He also served as the president of the Professional Skaters Association.
Slavka Kohout Button
Elected 2002
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Slavka Kohout Button began skating in Chicago, Ill., at age 2 and was a two-time Midwestern singles champion and the 1950 U.S. junior bronze medalist. Following her amateur career, she turned to coaching. Kohout Button considers the pinnacle of her coaching career 1972, when, in addition to other skaters, she coached the entire French Olympic skating team and 1972 Olympic bronze medalist Janet Lynn. The 14-year coaching relationship with Lynn also included five U.S. titles. Kohout Button started a skating school at the Wagon Wheel Resort in Rockton, Ill., where she continued to build on her reputation for coaching excellence. Her coaching credentials included working with Scott Hamilton when he was a young skater. Her later coaching career took her to Greenwich, Conn., where she holds a Level VI ranking from the Professional Skaters Association.
Norma & Wally Sahlin
Inducted 2004
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Wally Sahlin was the 1941 U.S. novice champion and the 1942 U.S. junior champion. Norma (Caine) Sahlin also was a national competitor. Although their competitive careers were interrupted by World War II, Wally and Norma Sahlin won the Midwestern Sectional Championship junior pairs title in 1947. Later, they became accomplished show skaters with the Ice Follies. Wally Sahlin also was president of the Professional Skaters Association from 1959–1967.
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They began a long coaching career together after their marriage and coached many national competitors, including Charles Tickner and Jill Trenary. In addition, Wally and Norma Sahlin helped develop the Denver University Ice Arena into a competitive year-round figure skating center.
Lynn Benson
Elected in 2014
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Lynn Benson is one of synchronized skating's leading pioneers, founding the Haydenettes synchronized skating teams of Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1979.
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In 22 competitive seasons, Benson’s senior teams won 15 U.S. synchronized titles and earned top-five finishes at the first five ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships.
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Considered the “Mother of Synchronized Skating,” Benson’s vision and passion are credited with helping grow the discipline. In 1979, fewer than 10 synchronized teams existed. At the time of her induction, more than 525 teams were registered with U.S. Figure Skating.
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Benson retired in 2005 after 26 years as coach of the Haydenettes.
Gustave Lussi
Inducted 2016
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Gustave Lussi coached five Olympic champions and 16 World champions, but his contributions to the sport are best exemplified by his most noted student, Dick Button.
The only U.S. figure skater to win two Olympic championships (1948, ’52), Button was Lussi’s student his entire nine-year amateur career. In his seven senior seasons, Button won two Olympic gold medals, five World titles, three North American crowns and even the European Championships, prompting the event to no longer invite North Americans. His seven consecutive U.S. titles are a men’s record.
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Together, Lussi and Button transformed the sport by accentuating athleticism and developing elements such as the double Axel, the “Button camel” (a jump parallel spin) and the first triple jump (the triple loop, performed at the 1952 Olympics). Lussi’s students pioneered the flying camel and flying sit spin.
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Lussi went on to coach U.S. Olympic champions Hayes Jenkins, David Jenkins and Dorothy Hamill at various stages of their careers. Lussi also coached Olympic champions Barbara Ann Scott (1948, Canada) and John Curry (1976, Great Britain). U.S. Hall of Famer Paul Wylie, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist, was one of Lussi’s final students to earn an Olympic medal.
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Lussi was inducted into the inaugural class of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976. He posthumously was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame on Jan. 22, 2016, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was presented by Button, Wylie and his granddaughter Cristina Lussi.
Peter Burrows
Inducted 2017
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Olympic and World coach Peter Burrows was a coaching fixture in the New York metropolitan area for more than 50 years. He was the primary coach for 1982 World champion Elaine Zayak and 1997–98 U.S. pairs champions Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen.
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In 1976, Burrows worked with Dorothy Hamill before the Innsbruck Olympics. Although Carlo Fassi was her primary coach, Hamill wrote in her autobiography that Burrows played a key role in her Olympic championship.
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Burrows coached at Sport-O-Rama in Monsey, New York, where he was the executive director of figure skating for more than 35 years. He also operated the Peter Burrows Skating Center at Iceland in New Hyde Park for 19 years. Burrows died in 2014 at age 75.
Kathy Casey
Inducted 2020
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Olympic and World coach Kathy Casey’s career spanned more than 50 years, advancing the biomechanical studies of jumps and helping skaters correct technical aspects of their performances. Casey, the 2005 U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Science Coach of the Year, was the official U.S. coach at three Olympics and was a member of the USOC Coaches Committee. She served as PSA President from 1989-94 and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2008. Casey’s students included Scott Davis, Rosalynn Summers, Scott Hamilton, Paul Wylie, Jill Trenary, and Rachael Flatt, among others. Born in Great Falls, Montana, she spent most of her life in Colorado Springs.
Vicki Korn
Inducted 2022
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Vicki Korn’s passion and leadership created the first collegiate varsity synchronized skating program in the nation (1996). Korn’s Miami team earned a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships, the first silver for a U.S. team. She led Miami to three senior U.S. titles (1999, 2006, ’09), seven international medals, and eight appearances at the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships. With Korn as a coach, Miami’s collegiate teams won 11 U.S. titles. The Redhawks’ 2018-19 collegiate title was the first in any sport at the university. Korn was a three-time PSA Synchronized Skating Coach of the Year (1995, 1999, 2007) and the 2007 PSA Coach of the Year. The dual awards in 2007 remain a rarity in the sport.
Christa Fassi
Inducted 2024
For 35 years, Christa Fassi and her husband Carlo Fassi combined to coach numerous Olympic, World, and U.S. champions. Since Carlo’s death in 1997, Christa has continued to coach, choreograph, and mentor hundreds in the skating community for more than 60 years. Christa, an integral member of the coaching duo, was not included when Carlo was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1994. While Carlo was the technician, Christa focused on the complete package, including choreography, music, and showcasing the entire athlete and their programs through costuming presentation, and mental approach.
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After much success in their native Italy, the Fassis was hired to coach in the United States after the 1961 crash of Sabena Flight 548 took the lives of America’s best athletes, coaches, and officials. Their U.S. students included World and Olympic champions Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill, and World and U.S. champion Jill Trenary. They also coached Olympic champion Scott Hamilton and Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie during much of their careers. The Fassis spent the 1980s in Colorado, returned to Italy in the early 1990s, and then settled in Lake Arrowhead, California. After Carlo’s death, athletes from around the world continued to train with Christa.
CHOREOGRAPHERS
Robert Turk
Elected 2010
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Turk gives the term "one-man show" a new meaning. A talented combination of musician, dancer, and figure skater, he has more than 22 years of experience with the Ice Capades as a director and producer/choreographer, having begun as the understudy to 1942 U.S. champion Robert Specht. Turk was the choreographer for many skating specials, including "Highlights of Ice Capades in the 60s," Ice Capades specials, and a live, weekly television skating show from California. He created a school of dance on ice in the 1950s. Turk has worked with many World and Olympic champions. The Ice Capades hosted a 70th reunion in Las Vegas, Nev., where Turk was honored.
Ricky Harris
Elected in 2015
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For more than 40 years, choreographer Ricky Harris integrated the concepts of dance into the sport of figure skating, introducing an innovative style of choreography in 1972.
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Harris published three figure skating books and produced the sport's first instructional video, earning her the moniker “the mother of choreography education in figure skating.” She was instrumental in establishing the Professional Skaters Association (PSA) rating in choreography and was one of the first choreographers to become a master-rated coach.
Harris worked with U.S. champions Scott Hamilton, Michelle Kwan, Brian Boitano, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, and Evan Lysacek. A former professional skater, Harris earned a master’s degree in dance and a Ph.D. in choreography.
Sarah Kawahara
Class of 2018
Kawahara was coached by Osborne Colson. She joined the Ice Capades at age 17 and skated with them for seven years. In 1997, she became the first skater to win the Best Choreography Emmy Award, receiving the award for Scott Hamilton Upside Down. She won her second Emmy in 2002 for choreographing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Kawahara has choreographed for numerous competitive skaters, including synchronized skaters. She was a coach and choreographer for the film I, Tonya, and for the television series Spinning Out.
Renée Roca
Elected 2025
Renée Roca has had an impact on the sport as an athlete, choreographer, and popular ice show performer.
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Roca, a three-time U.S. ice dance champion, came to choreography in the middle of her competitive career. While between partners, Roca created Jill Trenary’s 1990 World Championship-winning free skate program, Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow’s 1991 U.S. Championships-winning program, and Nicole Bobek’s 1995 World bronze medal program. From 2001 to 2006, she choreographed Olympic and World medal programs for Chinese pairs athletes Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo and Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao. After returning to the U.S., Roca choreographed for many Americans, ranging from 2011 U.S. and Grand Prix Final champion Alissa Czisny to 2022 World and Olympic team event pairs gold medalists Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier.
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As an athlete, Roca partnered with Donald Adair (1981-87) to win the 1986 U.S. title; and Jim Yorke (1987-89) and Gorsha Sur (1992-96) to win the 1993 and 1995 U.S. titles. Roca is a five-time member of the U.S. World Team and the only ice dancer to win U.S. championships with different partners. Roca and Sur won the 1997 World Professional Championships title.
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A renowned show choreographer, Roca helped produce Stars on Ice, Disson Skating shows, Canada’s Battle of the Blades, and Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation’s Golden Moment, among others.
PERFORMERS
Richard Dwyer
Elected 1993
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The 1948 U.S. Championships marked the national debut of a 12-year-old Richard Dwyer. He received five first-place votes from the judges to win the Novice men’s title. The following year he became Junior Champion (1949) and then Senior bronze medalist in 1950.
But an offer from Ice Follies in 1950 would change his life. In June he became "Mr. Debonaire." His professional career spanned 30 years with Ice Follies. As "Mr. Debonaire," he appeared throughout the world and is one of America’s best-known and respected performers.
Mabel Fairbanks
Elected 1997
Mabel Fairbanks opened the barriers for minority figure skaters in the early 1930s. A Sonja Henie motion picture and the purchase of a pair of skates for one dollar triggered what would become one of the most amazing success stories in American skating history.
Mabel, who grew up in Harlem, was given free lessons from many well-known coaches including Howard Nicholson and Maribel Vinson Owen. Facing discrimination at every stage of her career, she persevered with determination and talent. She later toured with many professional shows before becoming an instructor. Among her former students are Richard Ewell, Atoi Wilson, Randy Gardner, and Scott Hamilton.
Lloyd “Skippy” Baxter
Elected 2003
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Lloyd “Skippy” Baxter began skating in the late 1920s when he was 9 years old. In addition to figure skating, he was also a speed skater, losing the national title by one-tenth of a second when he was 17. He won the Pacific Coast Sectional Figure Skating Championship in 1929. During World War II, no senior men’s competitions were held, so “Skippy” Baxter turned professional. Following the war, he skated with Sonja Henie’s ice show for many years and had a leading role in the Rockefeller Center ice shows. He was one of the first skaters to do a double Axel and the triple Salchow in figure skating shows.
Professional
Other Ways to View Inductees
Coaches
Howard Nickolson* | Class of 1976
Maribel V Owen* | Class of 1976
John Nicks | Class of 1993
Carlo Fassi* | Class of 1994
Don Laws* | Class of 1994
Frank Carroll* | Class of 1996
Mabel Fairbanks* | Class of 1997
Mary & Evy Scotvold* | Class of 1998
Slavka Kohout Button* | Class of 2002
Norma* & Wally Sahlin* | Class of 2004
Sonya Klopfer Dunfield* | Class of 2008
Kathy Casey* | Class of 2020
Lynn Benson | Class of 2014
Gus Lussi* | Class of 2016
Peter Burrows* | Class of 2017
Vicki Korn* | Class of 2022
Christa Fassi | Class of 2024
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Choreographers
Bob Turk* | Class of 2010
Lori Nichol | Class of 2013
Ricki Harris* | Class of 2015
Sarah Kawahara | Class of 2018
Renee Roca | Class of 2025
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Performers
Richard Dwyer | Class of 1993
Mabel Fairbanks | Class of 1997
Skippy Baxter | Class of 2003