CLIMATE CONTROL: Costa Mesa’s John Nicks, above,...

By Helene Elliott, Zan Dubin and John Needham

Feb. 2, 1992 12 AM PT

CLIMATE CONTROL: Costa Mesa’s John Nicks, above, has coached skating for 31 years, and at age 62 could have his best year ever, with five skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, this month. . . . “I think the 45-degree temperature in the rink keeps me going; I don’t think the germs are alive in here,” he says. Nicks’ entries at Albertville include Todd Sand and Scott Wendland, both of Costa Mesa.

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.