Benoît Richaud: The Man with Thirteen Jackets Won the Hearts of Fans in Milan

Frenchman Benoît Richaud has become an unexpected star of the ongoing Winter Olympic Games. As a renowned choreographer and figure skating coach, he has taken on an unprecedented logistical challenge. He directly supports sixteen athletes who compete under the banners of thirteen national federations. The scale of his involvement has necessitated developing a unique working system right at the edge of the ice rink. The greatest interest has been sparked by video recordings showing Richaud changing national jackets in an extremely short time. The record-breaking clothing change took him just 12-14 seconds. The Frenchman must manage to take off the colors of one country and put on the jacket of the next before his next protégé begins their performance. The media calls him „the man of a thousand faces” or „the Olympic transformer”. The person in question relates to his popularity with distance, joking that he feels like he's at Milan Fashion Week. Contemporary figure skating increasingly relies on the services of independent choreographers who prepare programs for athletes from different countries, replacing the old system of working with one coach assigned to a specific national team. Richaud's work is not just a media spectacle, but above all technical professionalism. His approach ensures that despite overseeing many skaters, each of them maintains an individual style and unique character of the presented choreography. This challenge requires him not only to have excellent knowledge of the regulations of many countries but also inexhaustible energy, as figure skating competitions often last for many hours a day without a break. „I feel like I'm taking part in Milano Fashion Week, having to change national colors in a dozen or so seconds between the starts of my protégés.” — Benoît Richaud This phenomenon sheds new light on globalization in winter sports, where one expert can be a key link in the successes of many competitive national teams. Richaud's success on social media also shows how much fans appreciate the behind-the-scenes work of coaches, which is rarely described in such a colorful way.