Nathaniel Niles

Nathaniel Niles was an avid singles and pairs figure skater and also a high-level tennis player. In the singles and pairs figure skating events, he competed in three Olympic Winter Games each. He skated the singles at the 1928 World Championships, finishing 10th. Domestically, he became US champion in the singles in 1918, 1925 and 1927. Niles was more successful in pairs with Weld-Blanchard. They were American champions in 1918 and consecutively from 1920-1927. Together, they also won five national titles in ice dancing. Internationally, they competed in three World Championships placing seventh in 1928, sixth in 1930 and eighth in 1932.

As a tennis player, Niles was NCAA champion while enrolled at Harvard University. From 1904-26, he entered 23 consecutive US Open tournaments winning the mixed title at the US Open in 1908 with Edith Eliot Rotch, herself a good skater and a sometime partner of Sherwin Badger. In 1917 he lost the final in the men’s singles against Lindley Murray in four sets. A member of the New England Tennis Hall of Fame, Niles died at the age of only 46, only a few months after competing at the 1932 World Championships in figure skating.