Nathaniel Niles

Who was Nathaniel Niles?

Nathaniel William "Nat" Niles was an American tennis player and figure skater who competed in single skating, pair skating, and ice dancing between 1914 and 1932.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Niles won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in men's single skating 3 times, and 9 national pair skating titles with his partner Theresa Weld Blanchard. Blanchard and Niles also won a further 5 national titles in ice dancing.

Nathaniel W. Niles also excelled at tennis, and was inducted into the New England Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000. While a student at Harvard, he was an NCAA champion for the sport. He competed in 23 successive U.S. National Championships. Together with Edith Rotch he won the 1908 Mixed Doubles title and in 1917 he reached the singles final but was defeated by Robert Lindley Murray in four sets. He also reached the semifinals in 1913 and the quarterfinals in 1904, 1911 and 1918.

Niles died in 1932, at the age of 46. His last figure skating competition, with Blanchard, had been the pairs event at the 1932 World Figure Skating Championships earlier that same year.