He did die young but he had retired from professional skating a long time before then.

He was an excellent skater.

If I remember correctly, the opinion at the time was although they weren't quite as good as T & D, they were always undermarked. The marking system was different then, the judges marking on who, in their own opinion, they thought the best, then second best skater etc. It seemed to the general public (who to be fair only got our info from the commentators) that the judges gave top marks to those they expected to do well, usually the Eastern Bloc contestants and that it was only because T & D were outstanding that they were given the marks they deserved. Having one couple from the UK at the top was considered by most judges to be enough and poor Karen and Nicky suffered from this. Had they been from one of the Eastern bloc countries, they would have progressed much further than they did.

The marking now seems much fairer and although the Kerr siblings seem to think it makes the skating very predictable, at least they know their skating is being marked on their ability, not their nationality.

It isn't just the Kerrs saying it! It does make the skating incredibly predictable, T & D　wouldn't have been able to be as innovative under the current marking scheme. We all know that all the female skaters who get to a world or european championships can manage to lift their foot up to their head in a lift, by saying this is the way to get a level 4 only means we get every dance couple showing us a slight variation of how to get your foot to your head, instead of working on more innovative lifts or positions which may actually be harder and require more skating skill but no if your foot isn't at your head no level four.

There is also no doubt that the judges can still use the marks to put the skaters exactly where they want them which is still not always based on skating ability. We were lucky this year that they went with John and SInead but on skating ability shown in that competition the top three places should have been the Russians in first and the other two medals between the French and the Kerrs, nationalism may have made me say the Kerrs should get second but either way between those two pairs was fair based on skating skills. The Italians had a bad competition and were held up under this system in exactly the same way they would have been held up under the old.

That was one hell of a performance! What a wonderful skater Robin was. I really enjoyed watching that. Thanks for posting it up

Showing my age now but I can remember getting up in the middle of the night to watch Robin winning his gold medal it was awesome
Agree with the comments about Karen and Nicky too.

My sister says the same. I'm too young to remember any of them in their competition days. Actually John Currry won his medals before I was born.

Looking at clips of them they were all excellent in different ways. John was very elegant and a worthy champion but I find his routines a little dull.

There's more risk in lifting but being lifted is underrated. Being lifted takes a great deal of confidence on our partner and getting in and staying in position during the lifts takes a lot of control and evey bit of that strong core that the judges constantly refer to.

Happy Saturday skating fans!

I've got a routine of Robin's - it's very eighties - but he's starting to show off
with his backflips!

Enjoy!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zy5x-Hk7voM

That was amazing, thank you!! Getting back to Claire, I have fond memories of her 'flying' routine but can't find it anywhere to watch - she was just like Tinkerbell.

I think people under-estimate how much skill it takes to be lifted. The brute force of the likes of Andrei, Fred or Matt will get someone in the air but if their not up to it it looks horrible, whereas if the male celeb can get their partner up there then she will present it better than some female celebs.

I remember Duncan calling her Tinkerbell!!

I wish ITV would put clips on you tube themselves or leave alone the people who do it.

if it hadnt been for this thread i would never have known how amazing Robin was as a skater.
Obviously ive always known how great torvill and dean were but wow to Robin!
I wish dancing on ice would show some clips of him in his prime too..

Yeah, I agree. Robin was wonderful, as were Karen and Nicky (see the links to youtube earlier in this thread).

Don't get me wrong, Torvill and Dean are ace but they COULD make more of what some of the judges did too. There will be a whole generation out there who don't know what Robin etc were all about.

Thank you Fondant Fancy - this should be required viewing !! What a great performance. The complicated made to look effortless... Wonderful

They were amazing, and although Karen, Robin and Nicky would rather stay behind the ice, we did see Robin do some little tricks on Exclusive when that was on. Or Defrosted, or Extra...why all the different names! And Karen did a bit with Dan Whiston which was shown and she was hiding in embarassment, bless her. She's still got it.

Yeah i love the nicky and karen clips too.
It would be nice if they did show the odd clip on the main show, at least then people like me who didnt even know nicky/robin/Karen were phenominal skaters got a bit of background into them .

Holy sh*t that Robin Cousins back flip is impressive as is the rest of the routine. He's so graceful too.

Would have loved to have seen him when he played Frank-n-furter in The Rocky Horror Show too!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gpGOA3l57TY

This was a bit earlier but in this you can really see the height of those jumps, it's like someone else is picking him up from the air and he stays there, I've never seen anyone that good now. Got some fairy dust. His forward skid spiral is pretty darn good too, that's probably on YouTube.

Some kind soul put them all on youtube but then had the lot deleted by the powers that be. Annoyingly they did it before I was realplayer save fitted. Hopefully someone will put them back one day and we can grab them all again quickly..

Now its a case of grab what anyone puts up before it vanishes.

Some of Claire's stuff is on the series DVD and the tour DVD has a similar routine but thats nearly all there is.

Suzanne has all of hers on her own site but Claire isn't that computer enabled.

I will never forget John Curry's performance in the 1976 European, Olympic and World Championships, that routine was the best performance I have ever seen before or since, it was just perfection.

I always wanted to see it again, and they played it when he died, and some idiot went and erased my tape (GRRRRR). Then it turned up on YouTube and I've played it to death. It's also up on the Olympic site.