Personal life

Robin Cousins was born in Bristol to Jo, a secretary, and Fred, a civil servant, who was earlier a goalkeeper for Millwall. Cousins has two older brothers, Fred and Martin. He left school at age 16 to focus on skating. After moving to London, he found a job stacking shelves at a department store.

Cousins lives in Brighton.

Competitive skating career

Cousins first stepped onto the ice at age nine at Westover Road Ice Rink while on holiday in Bournemouth. Having enjoyed the experience, he requested lessons for Christmas a year and a half later. He won his first national title in 1969 at the age of twelve on the novice level. By age fourteen, he was Britain's junior champion, and he made his international debut that same year.

As a young skater, Cousins also trained in ice dancing at the same time as singles, his first coach being a dancer, Ms Pamela Davies. He was later coached by Carlo Fassi. Cousins is able to spin in both directions.

Cousins represented the United Kingdom as an amateur skater for eight years, winning the national senior Championships for four consecutive years. At the 1977 World Championships, his left knee cartilage ripped and locked in place. By 1980, he had undergone major surgery on both his left and right knees. He has had eight operations in total, including a knee replacement in his fifties.

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 successful career as a professional ice skater. He starred in such skating shows as Holiday on Ice and Ice Capades, and he was a regular in the World Professional Championships. He hit both the longest axel jump and longest back flip on figure skates in Guinness World Records, reaching 5.81 m (19 ft 1 in) and 5.48 m (18 ft) on 16 November 1983.

Later career

In 1983, Cousins formed his own ice skating performance company, which toured the world with the programs Electric Ice and Ice Majesty. He has starred in, produced, directed, and/or choreographed many international TV ice shows, including 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. 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. He appeared as the head judge on the show Dancing on Ice in each series since 2006.

Cousins has performed on stage. He played the Prince in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Munkustrap in Cats, and Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show in the West End. He has also performed pantomime, 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.

Cousins was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1980 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in his home city of Bristol. On 10 March 2012 Cousins appeared in the gameshow All Star Family Fortunes. He appeared on Tipping Point (game show) in August 2013.

Cousins has also worked with the British synchronized swimming team. In 2005, he was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

In March 2016 Cousins joined Art of the Olympians (AOTO)

Charity work

Cousins is a significant patron of the Meningitis UK organization and the Starr Trust children's charity in Brighton.

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
1979-1980	The Railway Children	Belle de Jour Dragons At Midnight Murder on the Orient Express Paint It Black	With You I'm Born Again Don't Stop Till You Get Enough Where Do I Go? from Hair
1978-1979	Also Sprach Zarathustra	Swan Lake etc.	Classical exhibition
1977-1978	The Railway Children	Lady Sings The Blues Yellow Submarine (movie instrumental) Silent Movie	Disco exhibition number The Flower Song from Carmen
1976-1977	The Railway Children	Eldorado Kalinka Clair De Lune Hava Nagila
1975-1976		Three Blind Mice etc.
1974-1975			Enter the Greeks
1973-1974			Malaguena

Results

Amateur career

International
Event	1972-73	1973-74	1974-75	1975-76	1976-77	1977-78	1978-79	1979-80
Olympics				10th				1st
Worlds			10th	9th	WD	3rd	2nd	2nd
Europeans	15th	11th	11th	6th	3rd	3rd	3rd	1st
Skate Canada					2nd	1st
NHK Trophy								1st
St. Gervais					1st
National
British Champ.	3rd	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st

Professional career

Event/Season	1980	1981	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1997
World Professional Champ.	1st*	2nd*	1st	2nd	1st	4th		2nd	3rd	2nd
Challenge of Champions			1st	2nd				3rd	4th		2nd		3rd
World Cup of Skating							1st
World Team Champ.												3rd*
Legends Champ.														2nd
Canadian Pro Champ.												4th

[ Source: Wikipedia ]