On 10th of February 1976 John Curry won Britain’s first Olympic gold medal in figure skating at Innsbruck Winter Games in the men’s singles ahead of Soviet skater Vladimir Kovalyov and Canadian Toller Cranston.

John Curry was born on 9th September 1949 in Birmingham.

In 1976 he won in the British, European, World and Olympic Championships, combining his outstanding ice skating technical skills with ballet.

In the same year he was the flag bearer at the Winter Olympics for Great Britain and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1976. He was the first male figure skater from Great Britain to win Olympic gold.

During his 1976 Olympic free skate, using music from the ballet Don Quixote, he successfully landed a triple toe loop, a triple Salchow and a triple loop jump. His performance is known to have garnered the highest score ever given during the era of the 6.0 scoring in figure skating. He earned 105.9 points out of a possible 108 points from a panel of 9 international judges, – Wikipedia

In 1987, Curry was diagnosed with HIV, and in 1991 with AIDS. He died of an AIDS-related heart attack on 15 April 1994. He was only 44.

You can watch his Winter Olympic 1976 performance here: