Robin Cousins

Robin Cousins

Personal information
Country represented	United Kingdom
Born	17 August 1957 (1957-08-17) (age 54)
Height	6' (183 cm)[1]
Former coach	Carlo Fassi
Skating club	Queen’s Ice Dance Club
Retired	1980
Medal record Competitor for  United Kingdom Men's Figure skating Olympic Games Gold 1980 Lake Placid Men's singles World Championships Silver 1980 Dortmund Men's singles Silver 1979 Vienna Men's singles Bronze 1978 Ottawa Men's singles European Championships Gold 1980 Gothenburg Men's singles Bronze 1979 Zagreb Men's singles Bronze 1978 Strasbourg Men's singles Bronze 1977 Helsinki Men's singles

Olympic medal record
Figure skating
Gold	1980 Lake Placid	Men's singles

Robert "Robin" Cousins (born 17 August 1957 in Bristol) is a British retired competitive figure skater. He is the 1980 Olympic Champion, the 1980 European champion, a three-time (1978, 1979 & 1980) World medalist and four-time (1977, 1978, 1979 & 1980) British national champion. He later starred in ice shows and also produced his own. In addition to skating, he has also appeared in theatre productions, including in the West End. He has also commentated on figure skating events for the BBC and from 2006 to 2011 he has been a judge on ITV's Dancing on Ice

Contents 1 Skating career 2 Later life 2.1 Theatre 2.2 Media work 3 Honours 4 Charity work 5 Amateur competitive results 6 Professional competitive results 7 References 8 External links 9 Navigation

Skating career

From a sporting family (his father was a goalkeeper for Millwall) of Bristol, England, Robin Cousins took to figure skating very early after skating for the first time at Westover Road Ice Rink in Bournemouth. He won his first national title in 1969 at the age of twelve on the novice level.^[2] By age fourteen, he was Britain’s junior champion, and he made his international debut that same year.

As a young skater, Cousins also did ice dancing at the same time as singles, his first coach being a dancer.^[2] He was later coached by Carlo Fassi.^[3] Cousins can spin in both directions.^[2]

Cousins represented the United Kingdom as an amateur skater for eight years, winning the National Senior Championships for four consecutive years. He had a left knee injury at the 1977 World Championships.^[2] By 1980, he had undergone major surgery on both his left and right knees.^[2]

Cousins won the free skating portion of the World Championships three times, 1978 through 1980. He won silver medals at the World Championships in 1979 and 1980. He reached the pinnacle of his amateur ice skating career by winning the European Championships gold medal, and also winning the Winter Olympic Games gold medal in Lake Placid, New York, in 1980.

Cousins followed this with a highly successful career as a professional ice skater. He starred in such skating shows as Holiday on Ice and Ice Capades,^[2] and he was a regular in the World Professional Championships.

In 1983, Cousins formed his own ice-skating performance company, and it toured the world with the programs Electric Ice and Ice Majesty.

Later life

Theatre

Cousins has made the successful transfer from sport to stage, playing the Prince in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Munkustrap in Cats, and Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show in the West End.

Cousins also starred in, produced, directed, and/or choreographed many international TV ice spectaculars such as The Nutcracker: A Fantasy on Ice, Sleeping Beauty on Ice, The Wizard of Oz on Ice, Toy Story on Ice, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express on Ice, Holiday on Ice, and the movie The Cutting Edge.

He has also made various pantomime performances, playing Jack Frost in Santa Clause and the Return of Jack Frost at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. Prior to this he played the Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, Belfast.

Media work

Over several years, Cousins has been a regular guest presenter and commentator for BBC Sport, for the European and World Figure Skating Championships and the Winter Olympics.^[4]

He appeared as the head judge on the show Dancing on Ice in each series from 2006 to 2011.

Honours

In 2005, Cousins was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Charity work

Cousins is a significant patron of the Meningitis UK organization.

Amateur competitive results

Event	1972-73	1973-74	1974-75	1975-76	1976-77	1977-78	1978-79	1979-80
Winter Olympics				10th				1st
World Championships			10th	9th	Withdrew	3rd	2nd	2nd
European Championships	15th	11th	11th	6th	3rd	3rd	3rd	1st
British Championships	3rd	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st
Skate Canada International					2nd	1st
NHK Trophy								1st

Professional competitive results

1980-1989

Event/Season	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
World Professional Figure Skating Competitions	1st *	2nd *				1st	2nd	1st	4th
Challenge of Champions						1st	2nd
World Cup of Skating										1st

1990-1997

Event/Season	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997
World Professional Figure Skating Competitions	2nd	3rd	2nd
Challenge of Champions	3rd	4th		2nd		3rd
World Team Championship					3rd *
Legends Championship								2nd
Canadian Pro Championship					4th

Those marked with a * were team competitions

References

• Martha Lowder Kimball (1998) Robin Cousins. Baltimore: Gateway Press ISBN 0-9662502-0-6

External links

• Cousins Entertainment
• Robin Cousins skates to Julian Lloyd Webber's music Television appearance, YouTube

Navigation

Sporting positions
Preceded by Sebastian Coe	BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1980	Succeeded by Ian Botham

Olympic champions in figure skating – Men's singles 1908: Ulrich Salchow 1920: Gillis Grafström 1924: Gillis Grafström 1928: Gillis Grafström 1932: Karl Schäfer 1936: Karl Schäfer 1948: Dick Button 1952: Dick Button 1956: Hayes Alan Jenkins 1960: David Jenkins 1964: Manfred Schnelldorfer 1968: Wolfgang Schwarz 1972: Ondrej Nepela 1976: John Curry 1980: Robin Cousins 1984: Scott Hamilton 1988: Brian Boitano 1992: Viktor Petrenko 1994: Alexei Urmanov 1998: Ilia Kulik 2002: Alexei Yagudin 2006: Evgeni Plushenko 2010: Evan Lysacek

European champions in figure skating – Men's singles 1891: Oskar Uhlig 1892–1894: Eduard Engelmann, Jr. 1895: Tibor von Földváry 1898–1900: Ulrich Salchow 1901: Gustav Hügel 1904: Ulrich Salchow 1905: Max Bohatsch 1906–1907: Ulrich Salchow 1908: Ernst Herz 1909–1910: Ulrich Salchow 1911: Per Thorén 1912: Gösta Sandahl 1913: Ulrich Salchow 1914: Fritz Kachler 1922–1923: Willy Böckl 1924: Fritz Kachler 1925–1928: Willy Böckl 1929–1936: Karl Schäfer 1937–1938: Felix Kaspar 1939: Graham Sharp 1947: Hans Gerschwiler 1948: Richard Button 1949: Edi Rada 1950: Ede Király 1951–1952: Helmut Seibt 1953–1954: Carlo Fassi 1955–1957: Alain Giletti 1958–1959: Karol Divín 1960–1961: Alain Giletti 1962–1964: Alain Calmat 1965–1968: Emmerich Danzer 1969–1973: Ondrej Nepela 1974: Jan Hoffmann 1975: Vladimir Kovalev 1976: John Curry 1977–1979: Jan Hoffmann 1980: Robin Cousins 1981: Igor Bobrin 1982–1983: Norbert Schramm 1984: Alexander Fadeyev 1985–1986: Jozef Sabovčík 1987–1989: Alexander Fadeyev 1990–1991: Viktor Petrenko 1992: Petr Barna 1993: Dmitri Dmitrenko 1994: Viktor Petrenko 1995: Ilia Kulik 1996: Viacheslav Zagorodniuk 1997: Alexei Urmanov 1998–1999: Alexei Yagudin 2000–2001: Evgeni Plushenko 2002: Alexei Yagudin 2003: Evgeni Plushenko 2004: Brian Joubert 2005–2006: Evgeni Plushenko 2007: Brian Joubert 2008: Tomáš Verner 2009: Brian Joubert 2010: Evgeni Plushenko 2011: Florent Amodio

BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners 1954–1959 1954 Christopher Chataway 1955 Gordon Pirie 1956 Jim Laker 1957 Dai Rees 1958 Ian Black 1959 John Surtees 1960–1969 1960 David Broome 1961 Stirling Moss 1962 Anita Lonsbrough 1963 Dorothy Hyman 1964 Mary Rand 1965 Tom Simpson 1966 Bobby Moore 1967 Henry Cooper 1968 David Hemery 1969 Ann Jones 1970–1979 1970 Henry Cooper 1971 HRH The Princess Anne 1972 Mary Peters 1973 Jackie Stewart 1974 Brendan Foster 1975 David Steele 1976 John Curry 1977 Virginia Wade 1978 Steve Ovett 1979 Sebastian Coe 1980–1989 1980 Robin Cousins 1981 Ian Botham 1982 Daley Thompson 1983 Steve Cram 1984 Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean) 1985 Barry McGuigan 1986 Nigel Mansell 1987 Fatima Whitbread 1988 Steve Davis 1989 Nick Faldo 1990–1999 1990 Paul Gascoigne 1991 Liz McColgan 1992 Nigel Mansell 1993 Linford Christie 1994 Damon Hill 1995 Jonathan Edwards 1996 Damon Hill 1997 Greg Rusedski 1998 Michael Owen 1999 Lennox Lewis 2000–2009 2000 Steve Redgrave 2001 David Beckham 2002 Paula Radcliffe 2003 Jonny Wilkinson 2004 Kelly Holmes 2005 Andrew Flintoff 2006 Zara Phillips 2007 Joe Calzaghe 2008 Chris Hoy 2009 Ryan Giggs 2010–Present 2010 Tony McCoy 2011 Mark Cavendish

Persondata
Name	Cousins, Robin
Alternative names
Short description	British figure skater
Date of birth	17 August 1957
Place of birth	Bristol
Date of death
Place of death