Francis Michael Carroll (July 11, 1938 – June 9, 2024) was an American figure-skating coach and competitive skater. He had coached three skaters to win the World Figure Skating Championships: Linda Fratianne, Michelle Kwan and Evan Lysacek. Lysacek won the men's Olympic gold medal in 2010 at Vancouver. Carroll had been inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the Professional Skaters Association Coaches Hall of Fame, and was named the 1997 Olympic Coach of the Year.

Competitive and professional career

Born in 1938, Carroll was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. When he was in his early teenage years, a skating rink opened in his neighborhood and he began skating, interested by the combination of artistry and athleticism. After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross in 1960 with a B.S. in sociology, Carroll moved to Winchester, Massachusetts and lived with his coach Maribel Vinson Owen and her daughters on weekends. Carroll won the bronze medal on the junior level at the 1959 U.S. Championships. He won the bronze medal on the junior level at the 1960 U.S. Championships behind Douglas Ramsay. Carroll turned professional and was skating with the Ice Follies at the time of the Sabena Flight 548 crash that killed the entire U.S. team. Carroll skated with the Ice Follies until 1964. He was accepted to law school at the University of San Francisco but chose to pursue acting. He appeared in the background of several beach films, including The Loved One. Carroll began coaching part-time and eventually coached full-time. His notable students include Linda Fratianne, Christopher Bowman, Michelle Kwan, Timothy Goebel, Gracie Gold, Denis Ten and Evan Lysacek. He was the head coach for the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California. In 2011, he began coaching at a newly built rink in Cathedral City, California in order to be closer to his home in Palm Springs, California, one of his homes since the 1980s. Carroll resumed coaching at the Toyota Sports Center on June 1, 2013. He died in Palm Springs, California on June 9, 2024, at the age of 85, from cancer.

Results

Coaching career

Carroll's students include: Carroll coached skaters to win the World Figure Skating Championships during the era of compulsory figures (Fratianne), after compulsory figures (Kwan) and under the ISU Judging System (Lysacek). He also coached Lysacek to an Olympic gold medal. Carroll was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1996. He was the first figure-skating coach to be named the Olympic Coach of the Year, which occurred in 1997. On March 6, 2007, it was announced that Carroll had been elected to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. He was inducted on March 22, 2007 during the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships, between the original dance and the men's free skate. On July 29, 2018, it was announced that Carroll would be retiring from coaching on August 3. Carroll planned to continue working with U.S. Figure Skating and the junior-development program.